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Classic  Pagan  References 


TO 


Nascent  Christianity 


JOHN  ROBERT  BRAUER 


A   STUDY  OF   THE 
CLASSIC  PAGAN  REFERENCES 

TO 

NASCENT  CHRISTIANITY 


A  THESIS 

FOR   THE 

DOCTORATE  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

PRESENTED  TO 

THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 
OF  THE  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 

BY 


JOHN  ROBERT  BRAUER,  M.  L. 

11 


1906 

BAl,DWIN  PRESS,  JERSEY  CITY. 
310  Baldwin  Avenue. 


•  ■       ■        *       w 


•  •••••  •  .• .  •.'    : 


•    •  ••• 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

WORKS  CONSULTED  IN  ADDITION    TO    THE    SOURCES    WITH    WHICH 
THE  THESIS  IS  DIRECTLY  CONCERNED. 

Teuffel  and  Schwabe,  Hist,  of  Rom.  Lit. 
Christ,  Geschichte  d.  Griech.  Lit.  Noerdlingen,  1889. 
Keim,  Celsus'  Wahres  Wort.     Zuerich,  1873. 
Keim,  Life  of  Jesus  of  Nazara,  6  vols.,  Williams  &  Norgate,  1876. 
Baur,  Kircheng,  d.  d.  erst.  Jahrh.  v.  II,  Tuebingen,  1868. 
Schultze,  Die  Katakomben.  Leipsig,  1882. 
Orelli,  Inscriptions,  v.  I. 
Lardner,  Life  and  Works,  London,  1764-1767. 
Schaff,  Church  History,  v.  I-Ili. 
Schaff,  Person  of  Christ,  appendix. 
Bennet,  Christian  Archaeology,  N.  Y.,  1891. 

Mommsen,  Zur  Lebensg.  d.  Jueng.  Plinius,  Hermes  Z.  f.  cl.  Phil.  v. 
3,  1869. 

Friedlaender,  Sittensgeschichte  Roms. 

Gieseler,  Comp.  of  E.  Hist.  N.  Y.,  1846. 

Farrer,  Paganism  and  Christianity,  N.  Y.,  1892. 

Neander,  Kircheng,  Hamburg,  1828. 

Gildersleeve,  Essays  and  Studies. 

Geffken,  Aus  der  Werdezeit  d.  Christentums,  Leipzig,  1904. 

Doellinger,  Heidentum  und  Judentum,  Regensburg,  1857. 

Library  of  the  ante-Nicene  and  post-Nicene  fathers,  etc.,  etc. 


296236 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

PART  I. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL      SURVEY. 

1.  Primary  Sources— A  presentation  of  the  chief  biographical  data  of 

the  writers  whose  works  have  come  down  to  us  directly.  An  ex- 
position of  the  relative  importanceof  their  writings  bearing  on  the 
thesis.  -__-__  9_i4 

Tacitus— Pliny  the  Younger— Suetonius— Epictetus—Lucian 
of  Samosata — Galenus— Lampridius— Dio  Cassius— Liba- 
nius — Ammianus  Marcellinus — Eunapius. 

2.  Secondary  Sources.— Fragments  preserved  in  the  writings  of  the 

Christian  Fathers.  _  _  _  _  15-25 

Fronto  (Octavius  of  Minucius  Felix)— Celsus—Hierodes— 
Porphyrius. 

PART  II. 

THE     HISTORICAL     CONTENT      OF     THE     SOURCES. 

What  may  be  learned  from  the  pagan  writers  of  the  first  three  centu- 
ries concerning — 

1.     The  Person  and  Life  of  JESUS.       -  -  26-30 

a.  The  Name. 

b.  His  Person  and  Life. 


2.  The  Christians.     -  -  -  -  31-44 

1.  The  Apostles. 

2.  Christians  at  first  confounded  with  Jews. 

3.  A  Misanthropic  Sect. 

4.  A  Menace  to  the  State. 

5.  Judaism  and  Christianity  Foreign  Cults. 

6.  A  Secret  Sect. 

7.  Suspected  of  Unspeakable  Crimes. 

8.  Their  Morality  Recognized. 

3.  The  Persecutions.  _  _  _  45-60 

1.  Under  Claudius. 

2.  Under  Nero. 

3.  Nero's  Successors,  including  Domitian. 

4.  The  Reign  of  Trajan  (Pliny  in  Bithynia). 

5.  Hadrian,  Antoninus  Pius  (Mark  Aurelius). 

6.  Declus,  Diocletian. 

7.  Martyrdom. 


FOREWORD. 

In  publishing  this  dissertation  I  most  thankfully  acknowledge  my 
obligations  to  the  authorities  of  New  York  and  Columbia  Universities 
and  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  for  the  privilege  of  unrestricted  re- 
search in  their  libraries;  also  to  Mr.  F.  Rechten  of  Jersey  City  for 
his  valuable  service.  To  Dr.  W.  Waters,  whose  stimulating  lectures 
on  Greek  archeeology  and  religion  helped  to  give  me  a  saner  judgment 
of  matters  bearing  on  this  thesis,  and,  especially,  to  Dr.  E.  G.  Sihler, 
"doctissimo  et  venerabilissimo,"  my  teacher,  who  first  suggested  the 
subject  of  this  study,  ever  braced  me  by  his  kind  encouragement,  and. 
all  in  all,  proved  more  than  friend  to  me,  I  here  inscribe  my  sincere 
gratitude.  Finally,  may  I  be  permitted  to  say  that  the  gentle  inspira- 
tion which  carried  my  spirit  through  days  and  nights  of  toil  in  the 
autumn  and  winter  of  1905-6  came  to  me  from  my  cherished  compan- 
ion and  wife,  without  whose  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  high  ideals  of 
thought  and  life  this  study  could  never  have  been  begun  nor  success- 
fully completed. 

J.   R.   B. 

GRACE  ENGLISH  LUTHERAN  CHURCH. 

Jersey  City,  Dec.  29,  1906. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  SURVEY. 

PRIMARY      SOURCES. 

The  earliest!  references  to  nascent  Christianity  are  to  be  found  in 
the  works  of  TACITUS,  who  lived  at  the  time  when  the  attention  of 
pagan  Rome  was  directed  upon  the  Christians.  Upon  specific  data  in 
his  writings'  and  in  the  epistles  of  the  younger  Pliny, 3  the  year  of  his 
birth  is  fixed  at  55  A.D.  Beginning  life  with  the  accession  of  Nero 
(54-68) ,  under  whom  the  first  violent  persecution4  (a.  64)  swept  over 
the  church,  he  witnessed,  as  a  boy,  the  terrible  events  of  69,  passed 
through  the  15  gloomyS  years  of  Domitian's  reign  (81-96) ,  and  died  as 
late  as  120  A.D. 6  Under  Trajan?  he  held  the  consulate.  He  was  the 
greatest  literary  man  of  his  time,  an  eloquent  pleader, §  a  master  in 
psychological  observation ,9  a  stylist  of  singular  charm,  the  last  great 
classici°  of  Roman  literature.  As  an  historian  he  is  "a  descriptive 
writer  of  history  rather  than  an  historian  of  research"."  The  "Histo- 
riae,"  a  narrative  of  contemporary  events  from  Galba  to  Domitian 
inclusively  (69-96) ,  were  written  under  Trajan'^  and  originally  pub- 
lished in  14  (perhaps  12)  books,  of  which  the  first  four  and  the  first 
half  of  the  fifth  have  come  down  to  us.  The  fifth  book  contains  a  de- 
scription of  Palestine  and  the  Jews,  their  customs,  the  fall  of  Jerusa- 
lem under  Titus,  etc.  Of  the  "Annales,"  originally  published  in  sixteen 
or  eighteen  books,  we  have  the  first  four,  parts  of  the  fifth  and  sixth, 
and,  with  gaps,  books  eleven  to  sixteen.     In  the  fifteenth  book  of  this 

1  Baur,  Gesch.  derdrei  erst.  Jahr.         ^  Teuffel  Hist,  of  Roman  Lit,  par. 

1,  p.  431.  333. 

2  Tac.  dial.  2.  ^  Pl'ny  Ep-  2,  1,  6. 

3  Pliny,  Ep.  7.  20,  3  (Pliny  born         I  ['r/'.'  I'J^  f,'   ]}'  ^ 

4  Tac.  An.  15,  44.  n  |dV333,"ll 

5  Tac.  Hist.  1,  1.  12  H.  1,  1. 


9  An.  4,  3.  Agr.  42.  H.  1,  56. 
10  Teuffel  par.  333. 


work  is  the  vivid  account  of  the  burning  of  Rome  under  Nero  (64)  and 
the  first  great  persecution.    The  judgment  here  rendered  by  Tacitus 
upon  the  Christians  maybe  considered  typical  of  the  general  attitude^ 
of  cultured  Romans  toward  the  new  sect  In  the  reign  of  Trajan. 

The  younger  PLINY  (62-e.  113)  was  the  friend  and  eminent  con- 
temporary2  of  Tacitus.  He  held  offices  under  Domitian,  the  consulate 
under  Trajan  (a.  100) .  The  latter  gave  him  the  governorship  of 
Bithynia3  and  Pontus,  held  perhaps  from  September,  111,  till  January, 
113.  His  letters  were  published  in  nine  books,  to  which  are  added,  as 
a  tenth,  his  letters  to  Trajan.  The  emperor's  rescripts  are  usually 
given.  Letters  15-121  are  of  the  time  of  his  Bithynian  service. 
Among  these  we  have  his  enquiry4  of  Trajan  (X,  ep.  96  and  97)  con- 
cerning the  treatment  of  Christians  in  his  province  and  the  emperor's 
edict.  These  documents  are  of  great  historical  value.  The  informa- 
tion is  reliable,  and  light  is  shed  on  many  sides  of  the  life  of  Christians 
in  this  Asiatic  province. 

SUETONIUS,  whom  Pliny,  his  contemporary,  calls  "  probissimum, 
honestissimum,  eruditissimum  virum,"5  was  an  advocate  and  writer 
under  Trajan,  for  some  time  private  secretary  to  Hadrian, 6  and  later 
devoted  his  life  to  encyclopaedic  studies  in  the  manner  of  Varro.  He 
died  about  160.  In  his  "vitae  duodecim  imperatorum"  (from  Caesar  to 
Domitian)  are  three  references  to  the  Christians,  resp.  Claudius  25, 
Nero  16,  Vespasian  4  (Titus  4,  5.) . 

EPICTETUS,7  the  eminent  Stoic  philosopher,  was  born  at  Hierapolis 
In  Phrygia  and  was  manumitted  and  given  the  opportunity  of  a  philo- 
sophical  training  by  Epaphroditus,   the  grammaticus    of  Chaeronea, 

«  Baur.  Gesch.  d.  d.  e.  J.  1.  p.         5  Pliny  Ep.  ad.  Traj.  94. 

•'7^-  6  epistolarum  magister. 

»  Ep.  9,  23,  2,  7  Christ.    Geschichte    d.    griech. 

3  Ep.  10,  109.  Lit.  par.  441,  458  v.  3. 

4  Ad.  Traj.  ep.  96. 

10 


who  was  a  friend  of  Josephus.i  Banished,  with  other  eminent  phil- 
osophers, from  Rome  by  the  decree  of  Domitiani  (a.  94),  he  went  to 
Nicopolis  in  Epirus  and  taught  with  great  success  up  far  into  the 
second  century.  Arrian,  his  pupil  and  the  Xenophon  of  later  Greek 
literature,  wrote  down  the  discourses  of  his  teacher  {Siarpi^al 
'EiriKTi^Tou  in  8  books,  4  of  which  are  extant,  and  ivxeiplSiov)  and  pub- 
lished them  after  his  death.  Whether  by  personal  contact  or  other- 
wise, Epictetus  knew  the  customs  of  the  Jews  and  Christians  and 
refers  to  them  several  times  in  the  diarpi^al. 

LUCIAN  was  born  at  Samosata  about  125^  and  flourished  at  the 
time  of  the  Antonines.  He  was  a  prolific  writer,  a  satirist  of  rare 
literary  charm.  Eighty-two  of  his  works,  written  mostly  in  dialogue 
form,  not  all  authentic,  are  extant.  He  has  been  called  the  Voltaire 
of  the  second  century.  Among  many  glimpses  of  a  world  moved  "un- 
der the  impulse  of  a  complex  of  forces"  is  one  also  of  Asiatic  Christ- 
endom. References  to  Christians  have  been  found  in  various  writings, 
especially  his  "Peregrinus."  In  the  "Alexander"  (ch.  25-38)  we  have 
a  miracle-monger,  preying  on  the  stupidity  of  the  Christians  in  Cappa- 
docia.  Allusions  to  the  Christians  are  found  by  some  in  the 
"  Philopseudes"  c.  16,  wherein  Baur4  sees  a  reference  to  Jesus  and  the 
practice  of  exorcisms,  and  in  the  "True  Story"  2,  4, 11,  12,  which 
contains  the  pretty  sketch  of  the  v  irAXts  irSsa  XP"<''V  (Cf.  Rev. 
21 ;  22) .  Both  of  these  may  be  otherwise  accounted  for,  especially  the 
former,  since  the  practice  of  exorcisms  was  quite  common  in  Palestine. 
Cf.  Matt.  8,28;  12,27  Luke  9,49  Acts  8,9;  13,6;  19,13.  The  account 
of  the  death  of  Peregrinus,  written  about  166  and  addressed  to  Lu- 
cian's  friend  Kronios,  is  "one  of  the  most  curious  documents  of  that 
age"3  .     Chapters  11-16  deal  more  or  less  with  the  Christians.     Per- 

1  Suetonius,  Dom.  10. 

2  Gildersleeve,  Essays  and  Studies,  p.  315,  gives  120. 

3  Ibidem,  p.  347. 

11 


egrinus,  after  a  life  of  dissipation'  ,  joins theChristians  in  Syria  and 
imposes  on  them,  until  he  is  detected  and  rejected.  He  ends  his  life  by 
self-immolation.  Peregrinus  is  historical.  He  seems  to  have  lived  un- 
der Antonius  Pius,  138-161  A.D.,and  was  burned,  accordineto  Keim's^ 
calculation,  in  the  summer  of  165,  the  fifth  year  of  Marcus  Aurelius. 
The  "Philopatris,"  a  dialogue  between  a  Christian  and  a  Pagan,  was 
formerly  attributed  to  Lucian.  It  makes  the  Christians  {aepo- 
parovvras  c.  24)  the  object  of  much  scorn.  This  work  is  manifestly 
spurious.  Gessner  assigned  it  to  the  age  of  Julian,  c.  363  A.D.; 
Gutschmied3  puts  it  still  later— 623.  The  ridicule  directed  by  it 
against  the  dogma  of  the  trinity  forces  the  assumption  that  it  was 
written  after  the  council  of  Nicaea,  325  A.  D.  It  was  probably  writ- 
ten in  imitation  of  Lucian4  and  need  not  concern  us  here. 

CLAUDIUS  GALENUS  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and  prolific  writ- 
ers of  the  ancient  physicians.  In  point  of  style  and  of  exact  research, 
he  never  attaineds  eminence,  coming  rather  under  the  class  of  physi- 
cians who,  living  in  the  time  of  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines,  gave 
themselves  to  popular  philosophizing.  He  was  born  about  131  A.  D. 
at  Pergamos,  and  died  at  Rome  about  201.  He  lived  and  moved  much 
in  the  territory  of  the  primitive  churches.  At  Smyrna,  Korinth,  Alex- 
andria, he  pursued  studies  and  practised  in  Rome  up  to  his  death. 
Though  not  in  sympathy  with  the  philosophical  side  of  Christianity, 
nor  with  its  exclusive  positivism,  his  brief  reflections  upon  Christians 
seem  unbiassed,  commendatory  in  spirit  and  contrariwise;  they  are 
based  upon  some  personal  contact  with  the  people.  We  find  these 
judgments  in  books  1  and  2  of  de  diff.  pulsuum,  also  in  his  commen- 
tarys  on  the  Timaeus  of  Plato. 


1  Gellius  12:11  calls  P.  vir  gravis  4  Neander  C.  H.  II.,  89. 

et  constans.  5  Christ  par.  463  and  583. 

2  Ace.  to  Euseb.  Chron,  6  Gieseler  1.,  p.  122. 

3  Christ  p.  489,  n.  3. 


12 


Lampridius,  whose  life  falls  into  the  last  part  of  the  third  and 
the  first  part  of  the  fourth  century,  leads  us  into  the  more  advanced 
stage  of  Catholic  Christianity.  He  was  one  of  the  six  "scriptores  his- 
torix  augustse,"'  embracing  the  lives  of  the  emperors  Hadrian  to 
Numerianus  (117-284).  To  him  the  biographies  of  Commodus,  Dia- 
dumenus,  Elagabalus,  and  Alexander  Severus  are  attributed.  The  life 
of  Alexander  Severus  chiefly  concerns  us.  Lampridius  shows  us  this 
emperor's  peculiar  attitude  (essentially  syncretistic)  to  Christianity 
with  considerable  detail.  In  this  collection  of  biographies,  the  lives  of 
Hadrian  and  Septimius  Severus,  of  whom  some  edicts  respecting  the 
Christians  are  preserved,  were  handed  down  under  the  supposed  au- 
thorship of  Aelius  Spartianus. 

DIO  CaSSIUS,  the  foremost  Greek  historian^  of  the  imperial  era, 
was  born  about  150,  at  Nicsa  in  Bithynia.  Retiring  from  political 
activity  early  after  attaining  some  rank,  he  devoted  himself  chiefly  to 
historiography.  His  Roman  history  comprised  80  books,  beginning 
with  i^neas  and  running  up  to  Alexander  Severus  (a.  229).  Since 
books  36-60  (68-47  A.D.)  only  are  directly  preserved,  we  are  for  our 
subject  dependent  upon  an  abridgment  of  his  work  made  by  Xiphili- 
nus,  a  monk  of  Constantinople,  in  the  11th  century.  The  Jewish  war, 
under  Vespasian,  is  described  in  the  76th  book;  the  Christians  are 
mentioned  casually  in  the  67th  and  6Sth  books. 

LIBANIUS  of  Antioch  was  born  314.  His  contemporaries  some- 
times called  him  "the  minor  Demosthenes."  About  344  he  kept  a 
school  in  Nicomedia  on  the  Pontus,3  but  transferred  it  later  to  Constan- 
tinople, and  still  later  to  Antioch.  All  his  sympathies  were  on  the 
Greek  side  of  life.  He  loved  the  Greek  gods  and  would  not  fall  in 
with  the  tendency  of  the  times  to  turn  away  from  the  pagan  mytholo- 

1  Teuffel  par.  392,  402.  3  Christ  par.  542,  543. 

2  Christ  par.  443. 

13 


gies.  This  disposition  in  him  explains  his  admiration  for  Julian,  the 
restorer  of  paganism,  who  had  been  his  pupil.  When  Chrysostomos, 
another  of  his  pupils,  adopted  Christian  beliefs,  he  felt  deeply  grieved, 
for  he'  would  gladly  have  made  Chrysostomos  his  successor  in  the 
school.  Libanius  was  an  industrious  writer.  Besides  the  rhetorical 
writings  he  wrote  many  letters,  some  to  Christian  bishops  and  schol- 
ars. 1607  are  preserved.  Julian's  relation  to  the  church  is  dwelt  on 
in  his  monody  on  Julian's  death,  held  363  A.D.  The  speech  for  the 
preservation  of  the  temples  {inrkp  r&v  lepQv),  addressed  to  Theodosius 
the  Great  sometime  between  384  and  391,  reveals  the  conditions  ob- 
taining in  the  struggle  of  paganism  for  self-preservation. 

AMMIANUS  MARCELLINUS  was  bom  about  330  at  Antioch  and 
died  about  400.  Early  he  entered  the  army,  accompanied  the  magister 
equitum  Ursinius  to  Italy  and  Gaul,  fought  under  Julian  against  the 
Alemanni,  and  took  part  in  the  Persian  expedition  a.  353.  Later  he  lived 
in  Antioch  and  in  Rome.  His  "rerum  gestarum"  in  31  books,  the  first 
13  of  which  are  lost,  is  an  impartial^  and  fairly  accurate  chronicle  of 
events  from  Nerva  (96)  to  Valen  (398).  It  is  in  part  the  history  of 
his  own  time.  He  gives  us  an  insight  into  the  time  of  the  Arian  con- 
troversies, especially  of  the  history  of  Constantius3  (+  361  A.D.), 
also  of  the  life  of  Julian.  He  remained  a  firm  believer  in  polytheism, 3 
in  prodigia,  etc.,  but  was  fair  in  his  remarks  about  Christianity. 

EUNAPIUS4  was  born  at  Sardes  in  Lydia  about  348.  He  wrote  a 
history  of  Claudius  II  (270)  up  to  Theodosius  (403),  also  a  series  of 
biographies  of  philosophers  and  sophists.  Photius  says  that  his  his- 
tory (now  lost)  was  favorable  to  Julian  and  hostile  to  the  Christian 
emperors.  This  statement  is  confirmed  by  the  extant  fragments  from 
his  lives  of  the  later  sophists. 

1  Sozomen  H.  8.  2.  3  Am.  14,  11,  25— Also  21,  16,  18. 

2  Teuffel  par.  429.  4  Christ  par.  587.  591. 

14 


SECONDARY     SOURCES. 

The  writers  thus  far  reviewed  dealt  with  the  Christians  merely 
casually.  The  only  exception  that  might  reasonably  be  made  is 
Lucian,  who,' when  we  take  into  account  his  generally  sceptical  attitude 
toward  all  religions,  may  have  written  his  "Peregrinus"i  with  an 
antagonistic  purpose.  The  writers  now  to  be  considered  dealt  profes- 
edly  with  the  Christian  religion  by  way  of  literary  opposition.  No 
large  bibliography  could  be  constructed.  There  never  were  many 
writers  of  this  class,  and  the  literary  remains  of  those  that  wrote  are 
but  fragmentarily  transmitted  to  us.  Toward  the  fourth  century,  the 
custom  of  destroying  the  books  of  heretical  writers  established  itself. 
Constantine  in  325  burned  the  writings  of  Arius.  In  435  the  works  of 
Nestorius  were  confined  to  the  flames.  In  448  all  the  obtainable  liter- 
ature of  anti-Christian  authors  was  confiscated  and  destroyed  by  a 
decree  of  the  emperors  Theodosius  II.  and  Valentinian^  il.  The  law 
was  directed  chiefly  against  the  works  of  Porphyrius,  but  included 
Celsus  and  others.  What  we  can  know  of  all  this  literature  must  be 
gleaned  and  reconstructed  from  the  citations  in  the  Christian  fathers ; 
especially  in  Origan,  Eusebius,  Cyril  of  Alexandria  (for  Julian),  and 
minor  notices  in  Jerome  and  Augustin. 

The  first  important  literary  effort  on  the  Christian  religion  was 
probably  the  oration  of  Marcus  Pronto  of  Citra,3  the  famous  orator  of 
the  time  of  the  Antonines  (150-160).  From  him  Caecilius  in  the  "Octa- 
vius"  of  Minucius  Felix  may  be  supposed  to  have  drawn  his  catalogue 
of  the  crimes  that  were  so  often  imputed  to  Christians.  The  speech 
of  Pronto  is  lost,  unfortunately;  and  if  we  had  it,  it  would  probably 


1  Per.  c.  11-16  (written  169). 

2  Schaff  C.  H.  V.  II. 

3  M.  Felix  Oct.  9,  13.     Euseb.  IV,,  6.     Teuffel  H.  R.  L.  p.  355. 

15 


be  the  most  compact  statement  of  pagan  antitheses,  reflecting  the  at- 
titude of  a  time  when  paganism  had  not'^^  yet  absorbed  Christian 
views  and  elements. 


C  E  L  S  U  S. 

Though  we  must  content  ourselves  to  have  lost  all  of  this  oldest 
literary  assault,  we  may  be  grateful  for  the  great  service  of  the  in- 
dustrious and  learned  Origen  (185  A.D.— c.  255),  who,  in  his  refuta- 
tion of  Celsus,  ((cord  K^Xffov  [toO  ideoTdTovl  8  books)  preserved  for 
posterity,  in  almost  complete  form,  "ein  voiles  heidnisches  Buch 
tieferer  UeberlegungenueberdasChristentum,"!  the  oldest  extant  and 
most  complete  pagan  effort  to  combat  the  new  religion.  A  modern 
critical  student  of  Celsus  like  Keim  estimates  the  literary  and  histor- 
ical value  of  Celsus  thus:  "  Wir  Heutigen  koennen  kaum  darueber 
zweifein,  dass  die  Schrift  des  Celsus,  schon  nach  ihrem  absoluten 
schriftstellerischen  Werth  bemessen,  trotz  mannigfacher  formeller  and 
materieller  Maengel,  durch  Darstellunsgabe  and  philosophisch-kritis- 
chen  Scharfsinn  den  hervorragenderen  Produkten  der  spaeteren  griech- 
ischen  Literatur  angehoert  and  in  Anbetracht  ihrer  ernsten  Beschaeftig- 
ung  mit  den  groesstenreligioesen  Zeitfragen  sogar  vielleicht  indieerste 
Linie  zu  stellen  ist."^  ->^  ^      Origen  undertook  the  task  of  preparing 


1  Keim  p.  79.  3  cf.  The  Pref.  to  Origin's  c.  C. 

2  Keim  p.  177.  4  Orig.  Pref. 

■^  Celsus  (c.  178)  already  commanded  Christian  terminology,  for  he 
speaks  familiarly  of  the  "kingdom,"  of  the  "Son,"  "Son  of  Man," 
"Salvation,"  "temptation,"  "flesh,"  "spirit,"  "resurrection,"  etc. 
Porphryius  ace.  to  Euseb.  praep  4,  7  used  the  phrase  (rwri;pia  fvxv^. 

^  -^  J.  Geffen  in  "Aus  der  Werdezeit  des  Christentums"  p.  84 
says  of  Celsus'  book:  "  Trotzdem  sie  auch  frueher  Gesagtes  gelegent- 
lich  wiederholt,  muss  man  sie  eine  entschieden  wissenschaftliche 
nennen,  weil  sie  von  grossen  Gesichtspunkten  ausgeht."     1904. 

16 


his  apology,  in  wfiich  he  quotes  from  the  original  book  of  Celsus 
{\6yos  dXtte-i^s)  very  fully,  at  the  ripe  age  of  63  and  upon  the  urgent 
request!  of  the  eminent  Ambrosius.  Origen  himself  hardly  deemed^ 
the  books  of  Celsus  worthy  of  a  refutation;  Ambrosius  certainly  did. 
Historians  from  Neander  up  have  given  increasing  attention  to  him. 
Neanderi  said:  "Es  ist  um  desto  notwendiger,  dass  wir  den  Charakter, 
die  Ansichten  and  die  Argumentationsweise  dieses  Mannes  etwas  naeher 
betrachten,  da  wir  ihn  in  vielfacher  Hinsicht  als  den  Vorlaeufer  vieler 
spaeteren  Gegner  des  ganzen  Christentums,  Oder  der  eigentuemlichen 
Grundlehren  desselben  ansehen  koennen,  da  sein  Geist  und  Sinn  sich 
nachher  oft  wiederfindet,  und  es  sich  bei  ihm  oft  recht  anschaulich 
zeigt,  wie  evangelische  Wahrheiten  dem  natuerlichen  Menschen  von 
dessen  Standpunkt  aus  erscheinen  muessen."  Bauer  also  recognizes 
the  importance  of  Celsus  by  giving  an  excellent  resume  of  the  thought 
of  Celsus  in  his  history.  The  scope  of  Celsus'  reading  was  almost 
universal.  He  was  familiar  with  the  Greek  poets  and  historians,  and 
the  various  systems  of  the  philosophers ;  he  had  some  knowledge  of 
the  customs  of  distant  nations ;  he  could  marshal  facts  from  nature, 
from  music,  from  magic,  from  prophecy,  and,  like  Plutarch,  was  quite 
conversant  with  the  history  of  religion  in  its  various  forms.  This 
boast  irdj'Ta  yitp  oJ8a.  (1,  12)  was,  indeed,  not  without  basis.  His  ex- 
act knowledge  of  the  Christian  beliefs,  dogmas  and  their  historical 
sources  he  obtained  from  the  documents'  themselves:  the  Old  Testament 
and  at  least  one  (perhaps  Matthew)  of  the  synoptic  gospels  [raOra 
fi^v  odv  {ifuv  iK  vfieripusv  (TvyypafiiJ.dTU3v  2,  13-2,  49].  If  the  mind  Of  the 
real  Celsus  can  be  recognized  from  the  books  of  Origen,  we  are  led  to 
believe  that  his  many-sided  knowledge  lacked  co-ordination.  Origen 
himself  complains  of  frequent  contradictions  and  repetitions.     (Cf.  his 

'  2,  13. 

17 


rejection  of  Christ-worship  and  defense  of  demon-worship,  7,68-8,15.) 
Despite  these  defects,  the  book  of  Celsus  shows  us  the  early  begin- 
nings of  many  tendencies  of  thought  and  speculation,  often  represent- 
ed as  distinctly  modern  discoveries.  Here  we  meet  the  germ-thoughts 
of  all  modern  biblical  criticism,  both  from  the  philosophical  and  histor- 
ical sides;  here  is  the  Stoical  antecedent  of  our  conception  of  divine 
immanence;  here  are  glimpses  of  our  current  nature  philosophy  and 
evolution ;  here  is  the  first  compendium  of  the  science  of  comparative 
religion.  The  book  of  Celsus  is,  therefore,  quite  fundamental  for  the 
later  anti-christian  literature,  and  the  writers  after  Celsus,  especially 
Porphyrius  (c.270),  Hierocles  (305),  the  pagan  Caecilius  in  the  "Oc- 
tavius"  of  Minucius  Felix,  added  no  essentially  new  thoughts  to  the 
literature. 

Since  the  work  of  Celsus  no  longer  lies  before  us  in  its  original 
form,  any  attempt  to  re-construct  the  original  arrangement  can  be 
merely  tentative.  The  fact  that  Origen  has  eight  books  in  his  refuta- 
tion was  formerly  taken  as  a  basis  for  the  opinion  that  Celsus  also 
had  written  his  X670S  dX^/^^s  in  eight  books."  But  this  theory  is  long 
abandoned.  Later,  a  twofold  division,  comprising  first  the  attack  from 
the  Jew's  standpoint,  secondly  from  Celsus'  own  point  of  view,  was 
accepted.  Thus  Neander  and  others.  Some  have  analyzed  the  work 
according  to  its  argument  against  Christianity  from  history  and  from 
philosophy.  Origen  himself  in  the  preface^  to  his  work  complains  of 
alackof  order  and  of  frequent  repetitions  in  the  book  of  Celsus.  Some 
indications  of  an  original  plan  in  Celsus'  book  occur  in  the  first  and 
second  books  of  Origen's  refutation.  The  most  ingenious  and  thorough 
analysis,  or  reconstruction,  of  the  original  parts  and  subdivisions  of 
Celsus  was  furnished  by  Keim.     According  to  him,  Celsus  began  with 


I  Thus  the  Christian  scholiast  to  Lucian's  Pseudomantis.  Pref.  1,  40; 
2,  32. 


18 


a  prologue,  sketching  the  general  terms,  the  character  of  Christianity, 
and  lamenting  the  schismatic  tendency  of  both  the  Jews  and  Christians 
over  against  the  harmonious  character  of  the  pagan  religions.  Origen's 
first  and  second  books  contain  part  one  of  Celsus'  book,  in  which  the 
Jew,  representing  his  race  and  religion,  advances  his  polemics  against 
Christianity.  The  following  three  books  of  Origen  are  then  supposed 
to  have  comprised  Celgus'  personal  attack  made  from  philosophy,  in 
Celsus  the  second  part.  The  third  part,  reflected  in  books  5-7  of 
Origen,  may  have  reviewed  the  special  dogmas  of  the  religion  in  the 
light  of  current  philosophy;  if  so,  this  was  probably  the  most  import- 
ant section  of  the  treatise.  The  remaining  parts  of  Origen's  seventh 
and  eighth  books  may  have  formed  a  kind  of  4  section  in  Celsus, 
wherein  this  author  sought  a  common  ground  for  a  reconciliation  of 
the  Christians  with  his  own  views.  Whatever  one  may  think  of  this 
disposition,  the  fact  that  by  it  all  co-related  fragments  in  Origen  have 
been,  with  much  critical  acumen,  brought  together  and  properly  fo- 
cused, may  be  commended. 

We  are  indebted  to  Keim  also  for  the  most  searching  study  to  fix 
the  identity  of  our  Celsus.  The  name  Celsus  occurs  over  200  times 
in  the  literature  of  the  first  three  centuries.  Origen  himself  seems  to 
have  reached  no  positive  conviction  on  this  question.  He  knew  of  two 
philosophers  of  Epicurean  persuasion  by  this  name,  one  of  the  time  of 
Nero,  another  of  Hadrian's  time  (1,8),  the  author  of  some  books 
against  magicians  (1,  68.)  Lucian^  was  familiar  with  a  contemporary 
writer  of  (xvy-ypaixnara  Kark  Mdyusv,  and  probably  dedicated  his  Alex- 
ander to  him,  which  he  wrote  under  Commodus  (180-192).  Keim,  in 
agreement  with  Origen,  ably  defends  the  identity  of  our  Celsus  with 
the  friend  of  Lucian,  though  Christ  doubts  it.     It  is  difficult  to  fix  the 

I  Alex.  21. 

19 


philosophical  persuasion  with  definiteness.  Origen  held  him  to  be  an 
Epicurean,  who,  for  the  sake  of  literary  expediency,  put  on  the  cloak 
of  ai  Platonist.  Both  Mosheim^  and  Keim3  regard  him  as  a  Platonist. 
He  must  have  written  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century,  for  he 
recognizes  the  existence  of  the  Gnostic  sects,  also  the  Marcionites. 
Keim,4  therefore,  fixes  the  time  of  the  writing  in  the  summer  of  178  A. D. 


HIEROCLES. 

The  last  literary  antagonist  of  Christianity  of  purely  pagan  envi- 
ronment was  Hierocles.5  While  governor  first  of  Bithynia,  where  the 
younger  Pliny,  under  Trajan,  had  dealt  with  the  Christians,  and  later 
of  Alexandria  under  Diocletian,  Hierodes  was  personally  interested  in 
instigating  the  persecution  of  his  time.  He  wrote  either  during  or  im- 
mediately after  the  Diocletian  persecution,  probably  from  305-310  A. D. 
His  X6701  <t>i\a\ifideis  irpbs  tovs  Xpiffriavods  was  destroyed  by  the  empe- 
rors to  whom  we  must  ascribe  the  destruction  of  the  works  of  his  pre- 
decessors; but  we  still  possess  sections  of  this  work  and  enough  detail 
to  know  the  scope  of  the  books,  the  drift  of  the  argument,  and  the 
subject  matter  from  the  refutation  by  Eusebius  (contra  Hieroclem), 
which  is  extant.  Lactantius^  ascribes  to  Hierodes  wide  reading  and 
much  familiarity  with  the  Christian  views,  "Adeo  multa  intima  enum- 
erans,  ut  aliquando  ex  eadem  disciplina  fuisse  videatur."  But  Hier- 
odes added  nothing   essentially  new  to  the  arguments  advanced  by 

1  V  C.  Cels.  I,  8. 

2  Prjef.  to  his  translation  of  Origen  p.  22. 

3  Keim  p.  203. 

4  lb.  p.  267. 

5  Christ  par.  474;  610. 

6  Div.  Inst.  v.  2,  3,  also  de  mort.  pers.  c.  16. 

20 


Celsus  or  Porphyry.  He  had  divided  his  book  into  two  parts,  the 
first  dealing  with  a  parallel  between  Appollonius  of  Tyana  and  Jesus, 
the  second  dealing  with  the  current  objections  to  Christianity.  Euse- 
bius  gives  attention  chiefly  to  the  attempted  parallel. 

Philostratos  by  request  of  Julia  Domna,  the  gifted  Syrian  wife  of 
Septimius  Severus,  wrote  a  life  of  the  far-famed  Pythagorean  philoso- 
pher and  magician  Appollonius  of  Tyana  in  Cappadocia,  to  whom 
Caracalla  raised  a  monument,  whom  Alexander  Severus  honored  by 
setting  his  image  in  the  Imperial  chapel  by  the  side  of  Abraham, 
Christ,  and  Orpheus,  to  whom  Aurelian  also  consecrated  statues  and 
temples.  We  shall  consider  the  apologetic  significance  of  Philostratos' 
idealization  of  Apollonius,  who  had  died  about  100  years  previous  to 
the  writing,  in  a  later  part  of  this  study.  Be  it  sufficient  here  to  state 
that  no  parallel  between  Jesus  and  Apollonius  seems  to  have  been  in- 
tended by  Philostratos,  though  Julia  Domna  may  have  had  such  a 
parallel  in  mind.  It  was  Hierocles  who  first  gave  literary  expression 
to  the  conscious  craving  of  the  pagan  world  of  that  time  to  possess  an 
ideal  man  to  be  placed  in  opposition  to  the  Christians'  Christ. 


PORPHYRIUS. 

Later  than  Celsus  by  100  years,  more  incisive  in  his  criticism, 
and  more  generally  feared  was  the  Neoplatonist  Porphyrins.  Eusebius 
calls  him  t^ov  irdvTtav  SvcfieviaraTov  koI  iroXe fjuiCTarov  E^paloiv  re  Kal 
r)ixCiv.  Rufinus^  (died  410  A.  D.)  confirms  this  statement,  saying, 
"Porphyrins  qui  specialis  hostis  Christi  est, qui  religionem  Christianam, 
quantum  in  se  fuit,  subvertere  conatus  est  scriptis  suis".  Augustin3 
readily  concedes  his  learning,  calling  him  doctissimus  philosophorum. 

21 


His  learning  and  liis  interests  were  many-sided.  Eusebius4  gives  him 
this  tribute:  "6  yevfaios  cpiXdaocpos ,  6  Oavfj-aarb^  ^e6Xo7os,  6  riav  dtropp-^Tuv 
/j.v<TT-/ii."  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore,  that  his  writings  called 
forth  refutations  from  some  of  the  most  eminent  churchmen  of  the  time, 
particularly  from  Methodius  of  Tyre,  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  from 
Philostorgius,  and  the  best  of  them  from  Apollinarius  of  Laodicea. 
The  law  of  the  Byzantine  emperors  Thedosius  H  and  Valentinian  III, 
which  was  promulgated  Feb.  16,  448  A.D. ,  was  directed  to  destroy  par- 
ticularly the  works  of  Porphyrius,  which  end  was  accomplished. 

The  data  of  his  life  are  accessible.  Born  as  a  Phoenician  at  Ty- 
rus  about  233,  he  received  the  name  Malchos  (Melek),  which  his  lat- 
er admirers  translated  into  Bao-tXeiJj,  suggesting  thereby  the  name  he 
later  assumed:  Porphyrius.  Some  assert  that  his  training  was  begun 
by  Origen,  and  that  he  was  an  apostate  from  Christianity. 6  (Doubt- 
ed by  Gieseler  p.  174).  At  Athens,  he  attended  the  school  of  Longi- 
nus,  coming  in  262  under  the  Neoplatonic  influence  of  Plotinus  at 
Rome,  whose  foremost  pupil  he  was.  For  some  ti.tie  he  sojourned  in 
Sicily.  Returning  to  Rome  he  created  a  school,  teaching  philosophy, 
grammar  and  rhetoric,  but  excelling  chiefly  as  an  author  and  popular- 
izer  of  his  eminent  teacher's  philosophical  tenets.  A  number  of  his 
works  have  come  down  to  us.  He  was  a  very  religious  man,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  lofty  sentiments  in  his  letter  to  his  wife  Marcella; 
Christianity  he  opposed  on  philosophical  grounds,  though  he  did  not 
wholly  reject  it. 

His  work  Kara  XpicmavQi'  in  15  books,  created  much  discussion 
at  the  time  and  was  met  by  the  refutation  of  ApoUinaris  in  30  books. 
He  endeavored  to  point  out    contradictions    between  the  Old  aud  New 


1  H.  E.  6,  19.  4  Praep.  Ev,  5,  10  (3,  6). 

2  Invect.  adv.  Hiern.  5  Christ.  G.  G.  Lit.  Sec.  560. 

3  Civ.  Dei  19,  22,  23.  ^  Aug.  Civ.  Dei  10,  28. 

22 


Testaments,  also  among  the  Apostles  themselves.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  make  a  distinction  between  the  religion  of  Jesus  and  the  inter- 
pretations of  the  religion  and  person  of  Jesus  by  the  apostles.  Better 
known  is  his  "Philosophy  of  Oracles"  {Uepl  rijs  iK\oyiuv  <pi\o<70(p[as) , 
containing  a  few  oracles  concerning  Jesus  and  the  religion.  Both  of 
these  works  (as  also  the  refutation  of  Apollinaris)  are  lost.  Of  the 
second  book,  considerable  fragments  are  preserved  in  the  12  sermonib. 
curat,  affect. I  by  Theodoret,  in  Augustin's  de  Civ.  Dei,  and  espec. 
in  Eusebius'  Praep.  Evang.  and  Demonstr.  Ev. 


MINUCIUS     FELIX. 

We  cannot  close  this  survey  without  taking  into  account  the 
Latin  apologist  Minucius  Felix,  author  of  the  apologetic  dialogue  "Oc- 
tavius,"  as  it  were,  a  tertiary  source  for  this  study.  He  was,  at  first, 
hostile  to  the  Christians'  cause,  not  admitting-  the  Christians  to  a 
hearing  in  the  courts;  but,  as  he  later  with  his  friend  Octavius  Janu- 
arius,  in  memory  of  whom  the  dialogue  was  v/ritten,  became  recon- 
ciled to  the  new  thought— as  it  seems,  on  philosophical  grounds,—  he 
sought  to  commends  Christianity  to  the  higher  circles  of  Roman  soci- 
ety, in  which  he  freely  moved.  From  his  own  statement*  that  he 
took  advantage  of  the  court  holidays  (sane  et  ad  vindemiara  feriae 
iudiciariam  curam  relaxaverant)  to  spend  a  few  days  at  the  baths 
near  Ostia,  we  conclude  that  he  was,  by  profession,  a  pleader  on  the 
forum.  Lanctantiuss  says,  "Ex  lis,  qui  mihi  noti  sunt  Minucius  Felix 
non  ignobilis  inter  causidicos  loci  fuit".     To   the  support  and  defense 


1  Neander  i,  1,  p.  177.  4    Ibid.  2. 

2  Oct.  28,  3.  5  Inst,  Div.  5,  1.  Cf.  Oct.  1,  3. 

3  Ibid.  1. 

23 


of  his  new  persuasion  he  brings  classical  learning,  great  skill  in  argu- 
mentation, definite  knowledge  of  the  pagan  views  of  his  day  regarding 
the  Christian  life. 

The  date  of  his  writing  is  in  dispute.  The  dialogue  presupposes 
the  attack  of  M.  Cornelius  Fronto,  the  teacher  of  M.  Aurelius.  Pron- 
to died  about  166,  under  Commodus;  he  may  have  delivered  his 
speech  between  150    and    160,    under    Hadrian    or  Antoninus.     He  is 

twice  named  in  the  dialogue,  once  by  Caecilius  Natalis,'  "Id  etiam 
Cirtensis  [where    some    suppose    also    Minucius    to  have  been  born] 

nostri  testatur  oratio",  once  also    by  Octavius,^     "Sic  de  isto  et  tuus 

Fronto testimouium  fecit".     That  also  the  book  of  Celsus 

was  in  the  hands  of  Minucius,  Keim3  has  by  abundant  proof  con- 
clusively demonstrated.  Much  discussion  formerly  centered  upon  the 
question  whether  Tertullian  in  his  Apologeticum  had  used  Minucius 
or  Minucius  had  used  Tertullian.  Jerome,  in  de  viris  illustribus  58, 
placed  Tertullian  earlier  than  Minucius,  but  Jerome  is,  in  chronologi- 
cal questions,  not  always  a  safe  guide. 4  Lactantius,  an  older  and 
more  reliable  authority  on  this  point,  gives  priority  to  Minucius. 5 
The  proofs  are  cogent  that  Tertullian,  and  his  pupil  Cyprian  in  his 
transcription  of  Octavius  in  his  de  vanitate  idolorum,  both  based  their 
works  upon  Minucius.  We  may,  with  Keim,  place  the  Octavius  in  the 
time  of  M.  Aurelius  (about  180),  when  Fronto's  speech  was,  undoubt- 
edly, still  circulated  and  read.  As  Origen  preserved  for  us  the  sub- 
stance of  Celsus'  book,  Minucius  Felix,  we  trust,  gave  us  in  the  Oc- 
tavius the  gist  of  Fronto,  the  oldest  literary  assailant  of  Christianity. 
The  form^  of  the  dialogue  is  modeled  after  Cicero's  dialogue  "de 


1  Oct.  9,  6. 

2  Ibid.  31,  2. 

3  Celsus  p.  157.  [143,  n.  1. 

4  Cf.  his  Chron.  of  the  life  of  Lucilius  commented  upon  in  Teuffel  par. 

5  Div.  Inst.  5,  1  Comp.  also  Oct.  21,  4  with  Tertullian  Apol.  10. 
f"  Teuffel  par.  368,  note  2. 

24 


natura  deorum."  Minucius  makes  an  excursion  from  Rome  to  Ostia 
to  enjoy  the  sea-baths  with  his  friend  Octavius  Januarius,  who 
also  was  converted  to  Christianity.  Strolling  along  the  beach,  they 
met  Caecilius  Natalis,  another  friend  of  Minucius,  but  still  a  heath- 
en. At  the  suggestion  of  Caecilius,  they  agree  to  discuss  the  relig- 
ious question  of  the  time.  Minucius  himself  is  to  be  the  arbiter. 
Caecilius  (c,  5-15)  speaks  first,  opposing  the  new  religion  and  defend- 
ing the  existing  forms  of  religion  and  philosophy.  Does  he  act  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  Celsus  or  of  Fronto?  Perhaps  of  both,  but,  it  seems  to 
us,  chiefly  of  Fronto.  In  the  second  part  (c.  16-38),  Octavius  re- 
futes the  charges  and  vindicates  Christianity  as  a  rational  religion. 
In  conclusion  (c.  39-40),  Caecilius  confesses  himself  convinced.  The 
sun  sets.  Caecilius  desires  further  instruction  to  be  given  him  at  a 
later  day.  Minucius  is  spared  a  decision.  "Post  haec  laeti  hilar- 
esque  discessimus,  Caecilius  quod  crediterit,  Octavius  quod  vicerit, 
ego  (Minucius)  et  quod  hie  crediterit  et  hie  vicerit." 

The  dialogue  gives  us  an  idea  of  the  views  held  about  nascent 
Christianity,  both  pro  and  con,  by  the  cultured  classes  of  Roman  so- 
ciety, it  is  an  orderly  and  compact  summary  of  the  pagan  views  of 
the  time,  confirming  and  voicing  the  arguments  of  both  Fronto  and 
Celsus. 


25 


II.     THE     HISTORICAL     CONTENT    OF 
THE  SOURCES. 

We  now  proceed  to  find  the  historical  content  of  the  sources,  i.  e., 
we  will  try  to  show  about  how  much  can  be  known  about  Nascent 
Christianity  from  the  strictly  pagan  writers  reviewed  in  the  previous 
chapter. 

A.     THE      PERSON     AND     LIFE     OF     JESUS. 

1.  THE  NAME. — The  name  in  general  use  among  the  earlier 
writers  is  "Christus"  (XpiffrSs) ,  the  oflficial  title  being  confounded 
with  the  personal.     Tacitus:     "Auctor  nominis  eius   Christus,"'  and 

Pliny.     "Carmen    Christo dicere,"^    both    use    the    official  title. 

Later  writers,  especially  those  familiar  with  the  Christian  scriptures, 
have  the  personal  name:  Jesus  (Ir/o-oi/s).  Celsus,  who  was  con- 
scious of  the  confessional  significance  of  the  name  "Christus,"  pre- 
fers to  use  the  name  Jesus  throughout. 3  The  peculiar  use  of  the  spell- 
ing "Chrestus",  instead  of  Christus,  in  Suetonius4  is  due,  very  like- 
ly, to  an  exchange  with  the  Roman  name  Chrestus,  as  it  occurs  f. 
inst.  in  Martial  7,  55;  9,  27.  Weare  reminded  by  it  of  a  play  on  the 
words  Xpiards  and  xPV'^'^^^,  customary  among  the  Christians  them- 
selves. 


1  An.  15,  44. 

2  Ep.  ad  Traj. 

7>  Origen  C.  C.  1,  28  and  throughout. 

4  V.  Claudii  25. 

5  Lactantius  attributes  the  use  of  Chrestus  to  ignorance.  Div.  Inst. 
4,  7,  "Sed  exponeiida  huius  nominis  ratio  est,  propter  ii^norantium 
errorem,  qui  cum  immutata  litera  Chrestum  solent  dicers."  Suidas, 
under  Na^apaFos,  says  that  under  the  emperor  Clauv'ius  those  who 
were  previously  called  Nazarenes  orGaliiaeans,  received  at  Antioch 
the  name  Christians.     Of.  also  Act.  11,  26. 

26 


2.  PERSON  AND  HISTORY,— No  full  biographical  account  of  the 
life  of  Jesus,  as  we  find  it  in  the  Christian  gospels,  can  be  construct- 
ed from  the  scattered  references  to  him  in  the  pagan  writers.  Taci- 
tus and  the  earlier  writers  had  very  meager  information  about  him ; 
what  they  ascertained,  came  to  them  by  oral  report,  probably  by  Jews 
(Josephus),  rarely  from  Christians.  In  Tacitus,  we  have  the  state- 
ment, "Christus  Tiberio  imperitante  per  procuratorem  Pontium  Pila- 
tum  supplicio  adfectus  est."'  We  are  thankful  to  have  received  so 
much  from  the  pen  of  Tacitus ;  the  historicity  of  Jesus  is  thereby  con- 
firmed by  an  author  of  repute  and  the  time  of  crucifixion,  explicitly 
fixed  in  the  gospels,  is  corroborated.  He  was  concerned  to  trace  the  ori- 
gin of  the  new  religion;  and  he  found  the  originator  to  have  been  a 
certain  "Christus,"  crucified  under  the  procurator  Pontius  Pilate. 
We  have  no  evidence  that  Tacitus  had  seen  any  New  Testament  writ- 
ings. It  seems  more  probable  that  he  knew  of  parts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, but  even  in  regard  to  these  he  cites  no  sources.  Owing  to 
the  commingling  of  the  Jews  with  the  Christians,  Suetonius'  remark, 
"Judaeos  impulsore  Chresto  assidue  tumultuantes  Roma  expulit,"^ 
sheds  no  light  on  the  history.  We  do,  however,  gain  a  point  of  inter- 
est in  Pliny  the  Younger.  Pliny  is  the  first  to  have  perceived  the  re- 
ligious significance  of  the  person  of  Jesus  for  the  religion.  For  Taci- 
tus Jesus  was  the  "auctor"  of  the  new  religion,  in  Pliny  Jesus 
appears  as  being  himself  the  object  of  religious  veneration.  He  told 
Trajan  that  the  Christians  of  Bithynia  came  together  at  stated  times 
to  chant  a  hymn  "to  Christ  as  to  God"3  (Christo  quasi  deo.)  Lu- 
cian  makes  the  devotion  of  the  Christians  to  Jesus  an  object  of  ridi- 
cule, drawing,  as  it  seems  to  us,  a  parallel  to  Jesus  in  the  person  of 
Peregrinus,  whom  the  Christians,    by  him  deceived,  honored  as  a  god 

I  An.  15.  44.  2  Suet.  v.  Claudii  25. 

3  Ep.  ad  Traj.     Cf.  Lucian's  Pereg.   (Peregrinus  here). 

27 


dis  0€bv  airhv  iKe'ivoi  riyovvTo) .  By  way  of  transition  and  as  a  further 
illustration  of  hero-worship,  he  introduces  Jesus.  He  called 
Jesus'  Tbv  viyav  yovv  iK€?vov,  rbv  iv  rij  UaXaiffrivri  dvaKoXotria-d^vTa 
(that  great  man»  who  was  crucified  in  Palestine.)  "Him  they  honor 
{ai^ovffi)  for  having  brought  these  new  rites  into  life"  (/caivTji'  roir-nv 
reXeri^v) .  Here  Lucian  chronicles  history,  in  the  12th  chapter  of  the 
Peregrinus,  he  deals  with  the  Christians  more  explicitly.  Jesus,  he 
says,  is  the  Christians'  first  lawgiver  {vofxoOirrjs  6  irpuTos) ,  whom  he 
proceeds  to  call  "their  crucified  sophist"  {t6v  dveKoXorrtfffikvdv  iKeivov 
(To<t>i<TTr)v  avT&v)  ;  this  very  Jesus  is  to  them  an  object  of  worship  {rbu 
■KposKvvQfft  c.13).  We  have  in  Lucian,  therefore,  another  confirmation 
of  the  historical  fact  of  Jesus  and  his  crucifixion;  but,  as  for  Lucian's 
personal  view,  Jesus  is  merely  one  of  the  great  <jo4hutQ)v  and,  after 
all,  a  deceiver. 2  Turning  our  attention  to  Celsus,  chief  of  the  antag- 
onists, and  to  his  successors,  we  must  endeavor  to  glean  from  the 
bulk  of  their  writings,  (principally,  as  in  Celsus,  attacks  upon  the 
dogmas  of  the  church) ,  such  statements  about  Jesus  wherein  they 
may  be  understood  to  have  expressed  matters  considered  historical  by 
them.  Celsus,  of  course,  discredits  the  mass  of  gospel  references, 
while  he  readily  absorbs  current  fiction,  when  it  serves  the  interests 
of  his  polemics.  What  then  has  Celsus  to  say?  What  is  the  histor- 
ical Jesus,  as  portrayed  in  his  Logos  Alethes? — Jesus  came  from  a 
Jewish  village  and  was  born  of  an  humble  daughter  of  the  soil,  who 
made  her  living  by  spinning  wool — d-nb  ywaiKos  lyx^P'-^^'  >^^^  rrevixpcis 
Kal  xep«"?r/5os  (Cf.  2,32.)  She  was  found  guilty  of  adultery  and  cast 
away  by  her  husband,  a  carpenter  by  trade.  Thus  abandoned  she 
gave  birth  to  a  boy,  the  child  of  a  certain  soldier  by  the  name  of  Pan- 


1  De  m.     Per  c.  11. 

2  Lucian,    in    Philopseudes    16,    calls    a    Palestinian    exorcist  rbi>  iirt 
rovTujv  <T0(f>iffT7)i>.  Cf.  Justin  Martyr  Ap.  1,  14:  oi)  ydp  <xo<Pi(ttt)s  virrjpxe. 


28 


thera.  The  boy,  later,  went  to  Egypt  and  labored  for  a  living.  From 
the  Egyptians  he  acquired  the  magic  arts,  so  skillfully  performed  by 
him  in  his  later  career.  Coming  back  to  Palestine,  he  declared  him- 
self to  be  a  god.'  1,  28,  also  32,  38.  John  the  Baptist  baptized  him. 
1,  41,  58.  Soon  Jesus  attracted  to  himself  ten  or  eleven  men  of  evil 
repute,  publicans  and  fishermen,  men  of  the  worst  kind.  Traveling 
with  them  from  place  to  place,  he  managed  to  get  a  miserable  exist- 
ence, 1,  62.  The  personal  appearance  of  Jesus  was  SvaeiSh,  fUKp6v, 
dyevis  6,  75. ^  He  was  a  deceiver,  {raOra  deofiLO-ovs  rjv  rtvos  Kal  fjLOxOtipov 
-ybtjTos)  1,  71,  also  2,  7,  9.  The  Jews  punished  him  for  his  transgres- 
sions. 2,  5.  His  prophecies  failed  to  come  true.  Betrayed  by  his 
disciples,  he  became  a  fugitive  and  was  finally  captured.  2,  9.  The 
soldiers  reviled  him ;  dressed  him  in  a  purple  robe;  placed  a  crown  of 
thorns  on  his  head;  put  a  reed  in  his  hands.  2,  34.  He  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  convincing  his  contemporaries.  2,  43 — 2,  46.  He  died  2,  723 
Porphyry  seems  to  have  treated  Jesus  with  more  fairness  than  Celsus. 
While  he  charged  Jesus  with  equivocation  and  inconsistency  on  ac- 
count of  changing  his  mind  about  attending  the  festival  at  Jerusalem 
(Cf.  John  7,  8,  comp.  with  5,  14) ,  he  by  no  means  rejected  Jesus, 
but  considered  him  an  eminent  teacher  of  pure  religion.  He  thought 
no  one  should  calumniate  Jesus;  those,  however,  who  worshiped  him 
as  God,  were,  he  thought,  deserving  of  pity.s  if  he  ascribed  the  cessa- 
tion^  of  public  benefactions  from  the  gods  to  the  new  Christ-cult,  no 
aspersion  on  Jesus  was    intended.     In  his    "Philosophy    of  Oracles" 

^  Celsus,  though  he  was  a  man  of  considerable  reading  in  philosophy, 
never  saw  the  inner  side  of  the  Christian  philosophy. 

2  Probably  based  on  Isa.  52,  14,-53,  2. 

3  Caecilius  in  Minucius  Felix,  "'Octavius  9:  Qui  hominem  summo  sup- 
plicio  pro  facinore  punitum  et  crucis  ligna  feralia  eorum  cterimonias 
fabulatur,  etc. 

4  Jerome  adv.   Pelag.  II. 

5  Aug.  De  Civ.  D.  19,  c.  22,  23.     Eusep.  Dem.  Ev.  3,  6.     ' 

6  Euseb.  Prep.   Ev.  V. 

29 


(irept  T7;s  iK  Xoyluv  (ptXoaocpias) ,  fragments  of  which  are  preserved  in 
Theodoret,  Augustin,  and  Eusebius.i  he  recorded  also  oracles  bearing 
on  Jesus.  The  oracles  were  consulted  as  to  the  question  whether 
Jesus  should  be  worshiped  as  a  god.  These  oracles,  undoubtedly  gen- 
uine, are  tributes  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  preeminence  of  Jesus 
Christ,  tributes  spoken  by  pagan  priests,  who  would  not  cast  a  sylla- 
ble of  odium  on  his  prescious  and  pure  soul.  "The  wise  man  knows 
that  an  immortal  soul  ascends  from  the  body,  but  the  soul  of  this  man 
is  especially  distinguished  for  piety  Utti  /x^c  adav&rri  fvxv  iJ-fra  crwixa 
trpopaiv€i,yiyi.waK€L  <TO(plrj  Teri/xrux^vos,  iiWaye  ipvxv  oLvepbs  evae^lri  trpo<pepe- 
ffrdTT]  iarlv  eKcivov.  in  response  to  a  question  why  Jesus  had  suffered 
death  this  oracle  was  given:  "The  body  is  ever  subject  to  human  ills; 
but  the  soul  of  the  pious  ascends  to  the  heavenly  places  (Sw^a  /xiv 
dvdpdpeffiv  ^aaavoTs  aUl  irpo^^jiXriTai'  ^vx^l  5^  eiicrep^wvels  ovpavhv  Trtdbv 
I'fei.)  Hierocles,  the  last  of  the  literary  assailants,  adds  nothing  to 
what  Celsus  and  Porphyry  had  said.  In  the  second  part  of  his  work 
"Truthloving  Words  to  the  Christians"  {\6yoL  (pCKaX-^Ben  irpbs  roiis 
XpuTTiavovs) ,  with  which  Eusebius,  in  his  refutation,  chiefly  concerns 
himself,  he  repeats  what  was  probably  a  current  slander  from  hostile 
sources;  namely,  that  Jesus  was  chief  of  a  band  of  900  robbers. 2  He 
first  drew  a  parallel  between  Jesus  and  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  the  ma- 
gician idealized  by  Philostratos.  By  this  means  he  attempted  to  de- 
tract from  the  glory  of  the  life  and  works  of  Jesus  and  tried  to  minim- 
ize the  moral  effect  of  that  life. 


1  Cf.  Note  3. 

2  Lactant  Div  Inst.  5,  3.  Hierocles  is  superficial.  He  probably  con- 
founded Jesus  wfth  Judas  Gamala,  Theudas,  or  some  other  Pales- 
tinian bandit. 


30 


B.     THE      CHRISTIANS. 

1. — THE  Apostles.  References  to  the  immediate  disciples  of  Jesus 
occur  first  in  writers  already  familiar  with  the  Christian  literature. 
Celsus  is  uncertain  of  the  exact  number,  but  is  very  positive  in  as- 
serting that  they  were  men  of  plebeian  origin  and  of  despicable  char- 
acter. He  says,  "d4Ka  rj  ePOeKd  rivas  €^apTr](rafj.4vovs  iavrclj  iircppriTovs 
adpwiTovs,  TeKuvas  Kal  vai^ras  Kal  -novr^poTOLTovs  I,  62  II,  46. '  Of  their 
number  one  (Peter)  denied,  and  one  (Judas)  betrayed  Jesus.  11,17- 
18.  All  forsook  the  master  in  the  hour  of  trial.  11,9.  He  accuses 
them  of  having  invented  the  idea  that  Jesus  predicted  the  outcome  of 
his  life,  as  they  were  not  able  to  reconcile  themselves  to  its  disastrous 
issue,  nor  to  give  a  reasonable  justification  of  it.  {/.iridiv  exovres  i-Kia-Krj- 
^paffdaL)  11,13.2  For  Mary  Magdalen,  whom  the  gospels  (Cf.  Matth. 
28,9;  Luke  8,3;  John  20,1)  credit  with  the  first  vision  of  the  risen 
Jesus,  he  has  especially  chosen  epithets;  ywr]  irdpoia-rpos-dveipu^^as- 
4>avTa<nu}0€is-\\,55.  Similarly,  he  refers  to  Peter  (though  he  is 
not  named),  in  connection  with  Mary  Magdalen,  as  a  member  of  a 
band  of  deceivers.  11,55.  These  charges  were  repeated  by  later  writ- 
ers. Porphyrius  called  the  disciples  "homines  rusticanietpauperes.  "3 
Commenting  on  Gal.  il.  12-14,  Jerome  says  that  Porphyrius  accused 
Peter  of  error  and  Paul  of  imposition.  It  seems  that  the  social  insig- 
nificance of  the  disciples  was  a  fact  rendering  them  especially  unac- 
ceptable as  teachers  and  writers  to  the  pagan  world.  This  feeling  is 
voiced  by  Caecilius  in  the  Octavius,  "Aeque  indignandum  omnibus  et 
omnibus  indolescendum  est,  audere  quosdam,  et  hoc  studiorum  rudes, 


1  Matth.  4,  18;  9,9;   Luke  8,3. 

2  Similarly  Hierocles:     quaestus  et  commodi  gratia  religionem    istam 
comment!  sunt  Lact.  Div.  Inst.  5,3. 

3  Jerome  Brev.  in  Psalt.  also  Joel  2.     Cf.  also  his  comment  on  Matth. 
21,21. 

31 


litterarum  profanos,  expertes  artium  etiam  sordidarum  certum  aliquid 
de  summa  rerum  ac  maiestate  decernere,  de  qua  tot  omnibus  saeculis 
sectarum  plurimarum  usque  adhuc  ipsa  pliilosophia  deliberat.^  " 
Would  ignorant  men  (indocti,  impoliti,  rudes,  agrestes)  solve  the  mys- 
teries of  the  universe,  with  which  philosophy  had  struggled  unsuccess- 
fully for  ages? 

2.  THE  CHRISTIANS  AT  FIRST  CONFOUNDED  WITH  THE  JEWS. — 
Such  a  syncretism  is  very  marked  in  the  early  writers,  especially  in  Tac- 
itus. In  his  characterization  of  Jews  and  Christians,  his  phrases  are 
sometimes  identical,  not  merely  synonymous.  Of  the  Jews  he  says, 
"Apud  ipsos  (Judaeos)  fides  obstinata,  misericordia  in  promptu,  sed 
adversus  omnes  alios  hostile  odium". 2  The  Christians,  executed  in 
the  Neronian  persecution,  are  "convicti  odio  humanigeneris."3  He  was 
probably  led  to  identify  them  by  seeing  their  common  origin  on  the 
soil  of  Palestine.  "Judaea  est  origo  eius  mali  (Christianity),  for  the 
originator  of  it  lived  in  Palestine  during  the  reign  of  Tiberius.-^  Jewish 
customs  and  habits  filled  him  with  disdain  and  loathing;"  "Judaeorum 
mos  absurdus  sordidusque;"4  but  Christianity  no  less,  for  it  was  to 
him  a  "malum",  and  exitiabilis  superstitio,"5  something  to  be  classed 
with  the  "atrocia  aut  pudenda",  one  of  the  many  vile  things  with 
which  the  city  was  invested. 6  It  is  believed  by  some  that  Tacitus  as- 
cribed the  essentially  Christian  belief  of  immortality  to  the  Jews  in  his 
fuller  description  of  Jewish  rites  and  customs  of  Palestine:  "Animos- 
que  proelio  aut  suppliciis  peremptorum  aeternos  putant:  huic  gener- 
andi  et  moriendi  contemptus.7  Suetonius  makes  the  popular  identifi- 
cation very  apparent  in  his  statement  about  theClaudian  persecution, 
"JudcEos   impulsore  Chresto   assidue  tumultuantes  Roma  expulit".^ 

1  Minucius  Felix  Oct.  5.  5  Suetonius  Nero  16-superstitio  malefica. 

2  Hist.  4,  5.  ^  An.  15,  44. 

-^  An.  15,  44.  7  Hist. 4,  5  Cf.  Neander  Kg.  1,  p.  88. 

A  Hist.  5,  5.  ^  Vita  Claudii  25. 

32 


Suetonius  probably  copied  the  records  of  earlier  times;  in  his  own 
day  the  people  had  learned  to  make  the  distinction.  Lucian  says  that 
Peregrinus  was  a  prophet,  a  leader  of  the  Christians'  agapes  and  the 
synagogue.!  xhis  point,  urged  by  some,  does  not  seem  cogent;  be- 
sides, the  word  "synagogue"  occurs  James  2,  2,  and  may  have  been 
current  among  Christians  of  Jewish  blood  even  as  late  as  165  A.  D., 
when  Lucian,  it  may  be  supposed,  wrote  the  Peregrinus. 

3.  THE  CHRISTIANS  A  MISANTHROPIC  SECT.— The  peculiar  at- 
titude of  the  Christians  toward  the  social  life  of  the  pagan  world  was 
determined  by  the  strictly  monotheistic  conception  of  God  and  the  lofty 
ideals  and  ethics  of  their  religion.  They  felt  compelled  to  withdraw 
from  the  public  and  domestic  life  of  the  heathen,  from  their  amuse- 
ments and  their  works  of  art.  How  thoroughgoing  their  "world-flight" 
was,  may  be  seen  from  the  words  of  Caecilius.i  "Vos  vero  suspensi 
interim  atque  solliciti  honestis  voluptatibus  abstinetis,  non  spectacula 
visitis,  non  pompisinterestis,  convivia  publica  absque  vobis,  sacra 
certamina,  praecerptos  cibos  et  delibatos  altaribus  potus  abhorretis". 
What  an  earnest  pagan  would  call  "honestes  voluptates"  did  not  ap- 
pear In  that  light  to  the  Christian  of  severer  principles.  Not  merely 
the  "praecerpti  cibi"  and  the  "delibati  altaribus  potus,"  but  every 
form  of  pagan  celebrations,  theatrical  exhibitions,  processions,  public 
banquets,  were  pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  pagan  feeling  and  religion. 
But  domestic  habits  also  experienced  a  change.  Caecilius  says, 
"Non  floribus  caput  nectitis,  non  corpus  odoribus  honestatis;  reser- 
vatis  unguenta  funeribus,  coronas  etiam  sepulchris  dcgenatis."  It  is 
evident  that  the  omission  of  these  domestic  customs  in  Christian  fami- 
lies emphasized  the  contrast ;  especially,  when  we  consider  how  inflex- 
ible custom  is  in   all  matters  pertaining  to  funeral  rites.     Often  the 

I  Por.  11.  2  Oct.  12. 

33 


Christian  contempt  must  have  been  expressed  in  a  very  bold  way. 
Caecilius'  says,  "Templa  et  busta  despiciunt,  deos  despuunt,  rident 
sacra,  miserentur  sacerdotum."  But  these  negative  virtues  made 
them  appear  in  pagan  eyes  as  haters  of  the  human  race.  For  did 
they  not  despise  those  very  habits,  customs,  rites,  in  which  human 
feeling  most  found  expression?  Was  not  their  habit  inhuman?  That 
the  peculiar  manifestations  of  Christian  living  rested  on  an  ethical 
basis,  the  earlier  pagans  did  not  discern.  And  the  "odium  humani 
generis"  is  probably  the  first*  charge  brought  against  them.  Celsus 
devoted  a  considerable  portion  of  his  work  to  an  effort  to  remove  the 
antithesis  by  argument.  Why  should  Christians  avoid  pagan  altars, 
if  God  is  omnipresent?  What  prevents  those  most  consecrated  to 
him  from  attending  the  people's  festivals?  (Ti  ovv  KuiXdet  Toi)y  fidXnTTa 
Kaduffiufiivovs  ai;T(f)  Kal  twv  drmoreXuiv  eoprwv  fieTa\afj.^dvei.v;  17",  8,  21.) 
if  the  images  are  of  no  account,  why  cannot  Christians  join  in  the 
general  feast  {iravOoivla)  7  Either  one  should  not  live  at  all,  nor  walk 
on  the  earth,  or  he  should  feel  a  responsibility  to  take  part  in  the  es- 
tablished order  of  things,  such  as  rendering  sacrifices  to  demons. 
(8,33).     The  nature  of  Celsus'  argument  implies  the  charge. 

4.  A  MENACE  TO  THE  STATE.  While  every  aspect  of  the  Chris- 
tian life,  such  as  the  social  conditions  of  the  people,  imputed  ignor- 
ance, misanthropic  habits,  the  charge  of  immoral  practices,  etc.,  made 
the  people  and  the  religion  undesirable  to  the  Romans,  some  leading 
ideas  of  the  religion  itself  may  be  shown  to  have  caused  the  religion  to 
appear  also  politically  dangerous.  Jewish  messianic  hopes  were  known 
to  the  Romans.  Suetonius  says,  "Percrebuerat  Oriente  toto  vetus 
et  constans  opinio,  esseinfatis,  ut  eo  tempore  Judaea  profecti  rerum 
potirentur."3    Tacitus    already  had    made    note    of  it,  indicating  the 

»  Oct.  8.  2  Tac.  An.  15,44.  3  Vesp.  4. 

34 


source  in    the    prophetic  literature  in  the  Old    Testament,  from  which 
the  idea  sprang.     He  says,  "Pluribus  persuasio  inerat,  antiquis  sac- 
erdotum  Uteris  contineri,   eo    ipso    tempore  fore,  et  valesceret  oriens, 
profectique  Judaea  rerum  protirentur. " '     If  we  recall  the  habitual  ming- 
ling of  the  Christian  with  the  Jewish  people  in  pagan  minds,  also  the 
fact  that  Christianity  preached  the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  may  we  not 
assume   that  Christianity,  as  a  religion  sprung  from  Jewish  soil,  was 
supposed  to  perpetuate  this  hope?     The  ideal  of  a  "spiritual  kingdom," 
as  conceived    by   the  Christians,  could  have  been   appreciated  by  an 
idealistic  race  like  the  Greeks;  the  Roman  people,  however,  were  dis- 
posed to   take   a  more  realistic    view    of  it.     The   world-conquering 
trend  of  Christianity  was  recognized  by  them.     To  the  Romans  it  was 
a  political  movement,  a  religion  nourishing  political  ambitions.  Chris- 
tianity, moreover,  proclaimed    a    world  judgment  with  a  disintegration 
of  the  existing  order  of  things.     "They  fight   zealously  unto  death," 
says  Celsus,  not  to    deny    Christianity,    and  threaten  their  enemies 
with  eternal  punishment"  (8,  48,    also  4,  79).     These  were  "formid- 
olosae  opiniones"2  in  pagan  eyes  and  to  them  particularly    offensive. 
In  addition  to  these  ideas,  the  Christian  contention  that   Christianity 
was  the  absolute,  final  and  universal  religion  was  understood.  Celsus 
flouts  the  idea.     "How  could  it    be    possible    that  the  inhabitants  of 
Asia,  Europe,  Libya,  Greeks  as  well   as    barbarians,  scattered    unto 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  could  be  brought  to   agree   to    one   law  (et's  ^va 
ffV)X(ppovri<rai  vd/iov  religion.)      Whosoever  believes  it  knows  nothing  (6 
Tovro  oibnevoi  oUev  ovSiv)"  8,  72.     He  advises  that  "Christians  would 
dobetterto  assist  the  emperor  manfully,  to  assume  a  just  share  of  his 
burden,  to  take  up  arms  for  him  and  go  to  war  in  case  of  need,  to  lead 
the  army  with  him  (8,  73) ,  rule  the  country  if  necessary,  and  do  this 

I  Hist.  5,  13.  2  Min.  Felix  Oct.  5. 

35 


for  the  purpose  of  preserving  laws  and  piety".  8,75.  For  them  to 
dream  about  a  universal  sway  of  their  religion,  he  deemed  detrimental 
to  patriotism.  But  whatever  objections  to  Christianity  were  enter- 
tained by  the  Romans,  most  concerned  with  it  on  political  grounds, 
are  summed  up  in  the  designation  "foreign"  (illicita  religio;  super- 
stitio) .     To  this  point  it  will  be  well  to  devote  a  separate  chapter. 

5.  JUDAISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY  FOREIGN  CULTS. —Polytheistic 
religions  readily  absorbed  foreign  elements.  By  this  process  Greek 
religion  underwent  considerable  changes  in  the  course  of  time.i  Roman 
religion  was  more  protected  from  the  inroads  of  exotic  cults  upon  it. 
It  was  an  institution  of  the  state,  to  some  extent  preserved  by  law. 
Conquered  nations  were  permitted  to  retain  their  domestic  gods,  as 
long  as  Roman  religion,  as  a  sister  in  good  standing,  was  given  free 
course.  Proselyting  was  not  permitted.  To  introduce  and  extend  a 
new  religion  without  the  consent  of  state,  was  considered  inimical  to 
the  state's  interest.  Cicero^  recalls  an  old  law  to  this  effect,  "Sep- 
aratim  nemo  habessit  deos;  neve  novos,  sed  ne  advenas,  nisi  publice 
adscitos,  privatim  colunto".  As  a  rule,  all  polytheistic  cults  readily 
blended  with  the  national  religion  of  Rome;  even  Isis  worship,  so 
crude  and  exotic,  gradually  gained  a  foothold.  These  were,  however, 
concerned  chiefly  about  external  rites  and  practices ;  their  devotees 
could  easily  accommodate  themselves  to  other  forms.  But  Judaism 
and  Christianity,  strictly  monotheistic  in  principle,  and  besides  relig- 
ions of  authority,  were  neither  flexible  nor  expansive.  Allegiance  to 
these  presupposed  personal  conviction.  They  were  proselyting  relig- 
ions, aggressive,  and  would  not  amalgamate  with  cults  of  different 
principles. 3    The  more  unfavorably  did  their  foreign  character  impress 


1  Dr.  Waters  in  my  notes. 

2  de  legibus  2,  8. 

3  Doellinger  Held.  u.  Jud.  p.  612. 

36 


the  pagans  of  strong  national  feeling  and  preference.  Tacitus  de- 
scribes the  character  of  Judaism,  "Profana  illic  (in  Palestine)  omnia 
quae  apud  nos sacra,  rursum  concessa  apud  illos  quae  nobis  incesta."' 
Before  his  day,  Cicero  had  voiced  his  feeling  about  the  Jews  and 
what  was  inseparable  from  them,  their  religion,  "Stantibus  Hierosoly- 
mis,  pecatisque  Judaeis,  tamen  istorum  religio  sacrorum  a  splendore 
huius  imperii,  gravitate  nominis  nostri,  maiorum  institutis  abhorre- 
bat."2  Though  special  privileges  were  granted,  from  time  to  time,  to 
the  Jewish  inhabitants  of  Rome,  the  Romans  could  not  change  their 
attitude.  "Romanas,"  says  Juvenal,  "autem  soliti  contemnere 
leges. "3  Jehovah,  who  could  not  save  his  nation  from  foreign  subju- 
gation, never  was  considered  so  potent  as  the  immortal  gods  of  Rome. 
••Judaeorum  sola  et  misera  gentilitas  unum  (deum)  coluerunt,  cuius 
adeo  nulla  vis  nee  potestas  est. "4  Judaism  remained  a  despised 
foreign  cult,  despite  of  its  persuasive  influence  on  many  pagan  minds. 5 
The  odium  resting  on  Judaism  was  soon  shared  by  Christianity.  It 
was  regarded  as  merely  a  degenerate  form  of  Judaism.  Celsus  sneers 
at  it  as  a  ^dp^apov  86yixa  (1,  5).  Judaism,  he  thought,  might  at  least 
boast  of  its  antiquity ,6  but  Christianity  had  arisen  from  a-raffid^eiv 
trpoi  rb  KQivbvTdv  lovbalwv  3,117).  In  the  same  spirit,  Tacitus  re- 
joiced because  Christianity  had  for  a  time  been  "repressed,"  but  re- 
gretted that  it  had  again  Jaroken  out  (erumpebat)  ,7  Caecilius  asks, 
"Unde  haec  religio?  unde  formido?  quae  superstitio  est?"8  A  "su- 
perstitio"  it  was  to  Tacitus,  to  Pliny,  to  Suetonius— such  it  remained 
for  many  years. 


J  Hist.  4,  3.  2  pro  Flacco  28. 

3  Sat.  14,  96.  4  M,  Felix.  Oct.    10.  Comp.    Juvenal 

Sat.  14,  96.  Orig.  Cels.  1,  18. 
5  Doellinger,  H.  u.  J.  p.  628.     6  so  also  Tacitus  Hist.  5,5. 
7  An,  15,44.  8  Oct.  5. 

37 


6.  CHRISTIANS  A  SECRET  SECT.— Retirement  prevailed  among 
the  first  Christians.  The  times,  fraught  with  many  dangers  for  them, 
dictated  secret  methods.  The  fact  never  would  have  been  charged 
against  them,  had  not  the  suspicion  that  they  might  be  politically  dan- 
gerous invested  their  secret  gatherings.  Roman  law  forbade  all  noc- 
turnal associations  under  penalty  of  death.  We  have  an  old  law, 
reaffirmed  in  the  lex  Gabinia,  to  this  effect:  "Sei  quel  endo  urbe 
coitus  nocturnos  agitasit,  capital  estod."'  Later,  especial  laws,  for- 
bidding political  organizations  of  any  private  nature,  were  added,  es- 
pecially in  99  under  Trajan.  Pliny  learned  in  Bithynia  that  the 
Christians  had  a  custom  of  assembling  for  worship  "ante  lucem."^ 
He  admitted  that  even  the  coming  together  of  both  sexes  (promiscuum) 
in  these  meetings  had  proved  harmless  (innoxium) ;  he  stopped  the 
meetings,  because  the  time  and  private  character  of  the  meetings  gave 
them  the  aspect  of  illegal  heteriae.  Worship  was  carried  on  in  the 
utmost  simplicity.  They  met  apart  from  pagan  temples,  usually  in 
houses,  often  in  secluded  places  (catacombs)  without  pomp  and  dis- 
play, often  without  altars,  or  visible  insignia  of  religion. 3  ^u/xoi/s  Kal 
dydX/j-ara  Kal  veihs  ISpiiadai  (perjyovai,  says  Celsus  reproachfully.  Sim- 
ilarly, the  heathen  Caecilius,  "Cur  nullas  aras  habent,  templa  nulla, 
nulla  nota  simulacra?"  (c.  10).  This  absence  of  the  tangible  offends 
him.     He  calls  them    a    "latebrosa    et  lucifugax    natio,    in  publicum 

muta,  in  angulis    garrula    (c.  8)    occultare  et  abscondere  ni- 

tuntur  (c.  10.)  The  work  of  making  proselytes  was,  under  constraint 
of  law,  carried  on  in  secret  (/card  rds  IBlas  oldas  Celsus  3,  55).  The 
charge  of  being  maliciously  secret  about  their  missionary  endeavors 
was  not  preferred  against    them    before   Celsus.     He  says  that  these 


1  Tab.  IX. 

2  ad  Traj.  96. 

3  C.  Cels.  8,  17. 


38 


tanners,  woolworkers,  these  uncultured  and  rustic  people,  never  ven- 
tured to  make  themselves  heard  in  the  presence  of  older  and  saner 
people,  but  put  forth  their  persuasive  efforts,  when  they  could  manage 
to  assemble  the  children  apart,  or  a  few  simple  women.  In  the  laundry, 
the  cobbler's  shop,  the  women's  apartment,  they  spread  their  tenets, 
and  they  did  it  with  great  persuasiveness.  C.  C.  3,  55,  comp.  also  4, 
23.  Christians  were  accustomed  to  greet  one  another  with  a  kiss.i 
The  Christian  stranger  was  at  once  received  with  cordiality,  and  the 
rights  of  a  brother  or  sister  were  heartily  extended.  But  these  very 
tokens  of  a  new  fraternal  spirit,  purer  and  more  genuine  than  was 
commonly  seen,  were  interpreted  to  be  signs  of  a  secret  order.  "Oc- 
cultis  se  notis  et  insignibus  noscunt,  et  amant  mutuo  paene  ante  quam 
noverint,"  says  Caecilius.^  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  wise  secrecy, 
enjoined  upon  them  by  force  of  circumstances,  was  explained  in  their 
disfavor.  With  secrecy  as  a  basis  to  build  on,  what  wild  rumors 
could  not  be  evolved  in  popular  feeling  from  the  simple  fact? 

7.  SUSPECTED  AND  ACCUSED  OF  UNSPEAKABLE  CRIMES.— The 
fact  of  secrecy  was  pressed  to  become  the  charge  of  criminality.  A 
summary  account  of  these  charges  is  preserved  in  the  Octavius,  all 
the  more  interesting  because  Fronto's  speech  against  the  Christian  re- 
ligion seems  to  be  preserved  here,  if  the  statement,  "Id  etiamCirtensis 
nostri  testatur  oratio"  (c.  9,6)  is  applicable  to  the  contents  of  the 
whole  chapter.  "As  evil  is  very  prolific,  the  corrupt  morals  (perditis 
moribus)  are  already  spreading,  from  day  to  day,  over  the  whole 
world,  and  the  well  known,  horrid  churches  of  the  accursed  conspiracy 
(sacraria  ista  taeterrima  impiae    coitionis    adolescunt)  are  flourishing 

among  them   a    certain    religion    of  wanton  desires 

(velut  quaedam  libidinum  religio)    is    here  and  there  practiced ;  indis- 


1  (f>l\y)ixa  ay&tcns,  <j)l\y)tia  &yiov  Rom.  16,  16.   I  Peter  5,  14. 

2  M.  F.  Oct.  9. 


39 


critninately  they  call  themselves  brothers  and  sisters^  (fratres  et 
corores) ,  so  that  ordinary  unchastity  (stuptrum)  is  by  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  sacred  name  rendered  all  the  more  vile  (fiat  incestum). 
In  this  way,  their  vain  and  mad  superstition  (vana  et  demens  super- 
stitio)  glories  in  crimes."  is  it  possible  that  the  Romans,  who  had 
legally  suppressed  the  practice  of  the  lewd  Bacchanalian  rites  (185 
B.  C),  suspected  the  revival  of  these  in  Christianity?  Of  the  Bac- 
chanalia, Livy2  said,  "Ex  quo  promiscuo  sacra  sint,  et  permixti  viri 
feminis,  et  noctis  licentia  accesserit,  nihil  ibi  facinoris,  nihil  flagitii 
praetermissum,  pluravirorum  inter  sese,  quamfeminarumessestupra." 
With  regard  to  the  latter,  Roman  law  could  deal  with  facts;  but  with 
regard  to  the  Christians,  idle  gossipers  could  merely  suspect  simi- 
lar crimes.  But  Caecilius  tries  to  assure  himself  thatin  this  case  report 
could  not  be  altogether  astray,  "Nee  deipsis,  nisi  subsisteret  Veritas, 
maxime  nefaria  et  honore  praefanda  sagax  famaloqueretur."  Celsus, 
it  should  be  noted,  prefers  the  general  charge  that  Christians  formed 
combinations  contrary  to  law  (Si/c^^Kas  KpO^driv  Ttphs  dXXijXous  Troiovvrai 
•rrapd,  Til,  vevofiKTiiiva.  Cf.l,  1),  that  secrecy  prevailed  {Kpii<})iov  Sbyp-a 
1,7  6i<}>a.vovs  KaldiToppi^Tov  Koivwvlas  ffiv97)p.a  8, 17) ,  but  he  does  not  make 
any  charges  of  specified  crimes.  He  had  learned  to  discredit  popular 
suspicions.  The  source  of  such  excesses,  Caecilius  argues,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  religion  itself.  "Digna  et  nata  religio  talibus  moribus!" 
Why?  First,  the  Christians  were  reported  to  worship  the  head  of  an 
ass:  "Audio,  eos  turpissimae  pecudis  caput  asini  consecratum  inepta 
nescio  qua  persuasionevenerari."  Tacitus3  ascribed  such  absurd  rites 
to  the  Jews,  and  later  they  were  supposed  to  have  been  practiced  also 
by  the  Christians.     We  are  in  possession    of  a  few  graffiti,  showing 


1  Lucian  m.  P.  13. 

2  Livy  39,  13. 

3  Hist.  5,  4. 


40 


how  generally  these  reports  were  circulated  and  believed.  One  of 
these  is  the  graffito  discovered  in  1856,  in  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of 
the  Ccesars,  on  the  southeast  slope  of  the  Palatine  Hill.     This  "Spott- 


crucifix,"  caricaturing  the  fact  of  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  is  one  of  a 
number  of  graffiti  found  scratched  on  the  walls  of  the  imperial  Pedago- 
gium.  The  inscription  in  Greek  is  barbarous,  betraying  the  hand  of 
some  pagan  boy.  It  is  usually  deciphered  to  read,  "Alexamenos  wor- 
ships (his)  God."  (AAE3AMEN0r  TEBETE  [o-^/Serai]  ee6;/.)i  A 
similar  caricature  was  found  on  an  antique  gem,  first  published  in  the 
17th  century.  On  it  is  the  erect  figure  of  a  man  with  the  head  of  an 
ass,  the  body  being  clad  in  a  Roman  toga.  A  hand  is  raised  to  indi- 
cate the  act  of  teaching.  In  the  foreground  are  two  figures,  one  stand- 
ing, the  other  sitting,  both  attentively  listening.  Another  is  a  coin 
containing  the  head  of  Alexander  on  one  side  and  an  ass  with  its  foal 
on  the  other.  The  inscription  is  D  N  IHY  XPS  DEI  FILIYS,^ 
translated  by  some,  "Our  Lord  J.  C.,  Son  of  God."     Associated  with 


1  Becker:  Das  Spotter,  der  roem.  Kaiserpal.     Cf.  Tertul.  Ap.  1,  16. 

2  Bennett,  Chrs.  Archreology,  p.  94. 

41 


these  senseless  rites  was  an  even  cruder  form  of  nature  worship,  of 
which  others  accused  the  Christians.  Caeciiiussays  of  it,  "Alii  eos 
ferunt  ipsius  antistitis  ac  sacerdotis  colere  genitalia  et  quasi  parentis 
sui  adorare  naturam:  nescio  an  falsa,  certe  occultis  ac  nocturnis  sacris 
adposita  suspicio!"  An  imputation  manifestly  drawn  from  the  cur- 
rent gnostic  theories!  Third  in  order  was  the  "offense  of  the  cross." 
A  religion  honoring  a  man  punished  with  the  highest  penalty  for  his 
crimes  (hominem  summo  supplicio  pro  facinore  punitum)  seems  to  him 
to  deserve  condemnation.  In  initiating  neophytes,  he  says,  the  Chris- 
tians have  this  custom:  An  infant  covered  with  corn  is  placed  before 
them.  Somehow  they  are  then  induced  to  make  thrusts  through  the 
surface  of  the  corn,  and  the  child  is  killed  by  hidden  and  secret  wounds. 
The  blood  of  it  is  then  drunk  by  them  with  avidity,  its  members  are 
torn  from  the  body  and  distributed,  and,  by  this  "hostia,"  they 
pledge!  one  another  to  secrecy.  Finally,  he  approaches  a  matter 
known  to  all,  as  he  says,  and  of  which  all  talk:  the  common  meal  of 
Christians.  "For  this  meal  on  the  festival  day  (sollemni  die)  theyas- 
semble  with  their  women,  children,  sisters,  mothers,  people  of  all  sexes 
and  ages. 2  When  the  meal  has  been  protracted,  the  gathering  has 
grown  excited,  and  the  fire  of  illicit  desire  in  the  drunken  has  been 
fanned  aglow,  a  dog,  tied  to  a  candelabra,  is,  by  the  bait  of  a 
piece,  provoked  to  leap  beyond  the  space  of  his  tether  for  an  attack. 
The  unconscious  light  being  overturned  and  extinguished,  they  em- 
brace, by  unsteady  lot  in  this  immodest  darkness,  licentiously  (impu- 
dentibus  tenebris  nexus  infandae  cupiditatis  involvunt  per  incertum 
sortis)  ;  and,  even  if  all  are  not  by  body,  they  are  by  conscience  all 
alike  lewd,  for  by  the  desire  of  all  that  is  coveted  which  only  single 


1  Catiline  used  human  blood  as  a  pignus  coniurationis.     Cf.  Sallust 
Catil.  22.     Dio  Cassius  37,  30. 

2  Pliny  ad.  Traj.  Lucian  d.  m.  P. 


42 


ones  can  attain."     He  concludes  significantly,  "Multa  praetereo  con- 
sulto;  nam  et  haec  nimis  multa  sunt."i    Indeed,  it  is  enough! 

8.  THEIR  MORALITY  RECOGNIZED.— Few  Of  the  writers,  with 
which  we  are  concerned,  knew  the  Christians  by  personal  contact. 
Their  feeling,  determined  by  their  associations,  the  prejudice  of  the 
people,  and  want  of  direct  insight,  was  decidedly  anti-Christian. 
Therefore,  they  readily  believed  or,  at  least,  endorsed  the  rumors  cur- 
rent about  the  new  sect.  In  the  course  of  time,  the  pagan  minds  be- 
came more  and  more  enlightened  as  to  the  real  character  of  the  people, 
so  generally  held  in  suspicion :  for  even  Celsus  will  not  repeat  the 
vile  imputations  carried  over  from  Fronto's  time  in  the  Octavius.  As 
the  Christian  writings  became  known,  the  ethical  precepts  of  the  re- 
ligion were  recognized,  though  none  of  the  writers  would  concede  a 
priority  of  ethical  truth  to  Christianity.  Celsus  repeatedly  asserts 
that  the  ethical  good  in  Christianity  was  anticipated  and  expressed  in 
their  own  philosophers.  Most  favorable  and  appreciative  of  the  moral 
parts  of  Christians  are  such  writers  as  Pliny  the  younger,  who  had 
official  dealings  with  them  in  his  province,  and  Galenus,  the  physi- 
cian, who  would  naturally  be  interested  in  the  moral  side  of  a  new 
sect.  Tacitus,  of  course,  gives  expression  to  the  popular  feeling  in 
describing  the  Christians,  "per  flagitia  invisos;"  but  even  he  must 
exculpate  them  from  the  charge  of  having  burned  the  city,  which 
charge  was  among  the  incentives  to  the  Neronian  persecution.  In 
the  latter  instance,  Tacitus  was  in  a  position  to  exercise  his  own  per- 
sonal historical  judgment.  He  spoke  what  he  knew  to  be  truth.  The 
greatest  crime  of  which  Pliny  could  find  them  guilty,  was  their  at- 
tachment to  a    prava  superstitio  (nihil  aliud  inveni  quam  sup.  prav.). 

»  Athenagoras  confirms  that  these  charges  were  actually  made:  dOt6Tr]Ta- 
Qvitrreia  Seiirva  OlSiirodeiovs  fil^eis.  Ap.  4.  Cf.  Tac.  An.  15,  44, 
per  flagitia  invisos. 

2  Tacius  Hist.  15,  44. 

43 


He  personally  investigated  every  charge  preferred  against  them  by 
popular  frenzy,  and,  instead  of  finding  them  to  be  murderers,  adulter- 
ers, etc.,  he  found  that  whatever  compacts  they  made  bound  them  "ne 
furta,  ne  latrocinia,  ne  adulteria  committerent,  ne  fidem  fallerent." 
The  famous  physician  Galenus,  who  flourished  about  50  years  later 
than  Pliny,  has  given  us  a  very  precious  testimony  for  Christian  mor- 
ality. Galenus  never  hesitated  to  criticize  the  dogmatizing  and  ready 
credulity  of  Christians.  He  would  not  have  allied  himself  with  them 
as  a  school  of  thought,  in  one  of  his  last  works,  he  says  that  most 
people  cannot  be  instructed  by  abstract  teaching  (orationem  demon- 
strativam  continuam  mente  assequi  nequeunt) :  they  must,  therefore, 
be  taught  by  means  of  parables.  An  example  can  be  seen  in  the  peo- 
ple called  Christians  (homines  illos,  qui  Christiani  vocantur) ,  who  drew 
their  inspiration  from  parables  (fidem  suam  e  parabolis  petiisse) . 
Still,  they  live  like  philosophers  (Hi  tameninterdumtaliafaciunt,  qualia 
qui  vere  philosophantur).  Everybody,  he  says,  can  see  how  they 
overcome  death,  "Moved  by  a  chaste  feeling,  they  abstain  from  sex- 
ual impurities"  (item  quod  verecundia  quadam  ducti  ab  usu  rerum 
venerearum  abhorrent).  He  proceeds:  "Sunt  enim  inter  eoset  foem- 
in3e  et  viri,  qui  per  totam  vitam  a  concubitu  abstinuerint."  If  this  be 
virtue,  it  was  beyond  the  reach  of  pagan  philosophers!  And,  indeed, 
here  was  shown  also  a  tranquillity  of  mind  and  a  studious  and  con- 
scientious sincerity  that  would  do  credit  to  any  philosopher  (suntetiam, 
qui  in  animis  regendis  coercendisque  et  in  acerrimo  honestatis  studio 
eo  progress!  sint,  ut  nihil  cedant  vere  philosophantibus) .  This  strik- 
ing testimony  of  a  fairminded  physician  controverts  all  rumors. 


a  ad  Traj.  96. 


■•  aa   1  raj.  ^o. 

3  quoted  in  Gieseler  1,  p.  122. 

44 


PERSECUTIONS. 

1.  During  the  Claudian  reign,  disturbances  among  the  Jewish  in- 
habitants of  Rome  must  have  been  frequent.  In  how  large  a  degree 
the  new  religion  may  have  been  the  cause  of  these,  we  cannot  tell.  The 
contending  factions  certainly  became  a  menace  to  the  city's  peace;  and 
Claudius,  finding  the  trouble  serious  enough  to  warrant  legal  action, 
by  a  special  decree,  in  52,  expelled  the  Jews,  at  least  the  disturbing 
elements  among  them,  from  Rome.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
assume  this  decree  to  have  been  directed'  against  Christians  also,  al- 
though a  number  of  Christians  were  affected  by  it.  Cf.  Act.  18,  2. 
This  could  not  be  otherwise.  No  distinction  between  the  Jews,  as  a 
people,  and  the  Christians,  as  a  new  party,  was,  as  yet,  officially 
made  by  the  government.  In  Suetonius'  account  of  the  decree, ^ 
"Chrestos"  is  said  to  have  been  the  instigator  (impulsore)  of  the 
Jews.  The  evident  misapplication  of  the  name  Chrestus  Suetonius 
probably  took  from  the  records  of  the  government. 

2.  The  Neronian  persecution  was  the  tirst  imperial  persecution. 
It  was  the  last  tragic  act  of  the  burning  of  the  city  in  64  A.  D.  Taci- 
tus,3  who  was  a  boy  of  about  eight  years  at  the  time  of  the  conflagra- 
gration,  gives  us  the  fullest  account  of  the  events.  He  says,  "But 
not  all  of  the  relief  afforded  by  men,  nor  the  bounties  of  the  emperor, 
nor  the  propitiation  of  the  gods,  could  relieve  him  (Nero)  from  the  in- 
famy of  being  believed  to  have  ordered  the  conflagration.  In  order  to 
suppress  the  rumor.  Nero,  therefore,  falsely  charged  with  guilt,  and 


•  Suetonius  Vita  Claudii  25. 

2  Dio  Cassius  60,  6  Comp.  Baur  G.  d.  d.  e.  J.  I. 

3  Neander  G.  d.  Ch.  Rel.  I,  1,  p.  92. 

45 


punished  with  the  most  exquisite  tortures,  those  persons  who,  hated 
for  their  crimes,  were  commonly  called  Christians.     (Subdidit  reos,  et 
qusesitissimis  pcenis  affecit,  quos   per  flagitia  invisos  vulgus  Ohristia- 
nos  appellebat) Accordingly  those  who  confessed  were  ar- 
rested first.     Next,  on  their  information,  a  vast  multitude  (multitudo 
ingens)  were  convicted,  not  so  much  of  the  crime  of  incendiarism  as 
of  hatred  against  the  human  race.     In  dying,   they  were  made  the  ob- 
jects of  sport,  for  they  were  wrapped  in  the  hides  of  wild  beasts  and 
were  torn  to  pieces  by  dogs,  or  were  nailed  to  crosses,  or  were  set  on 
fire  and  as  the  day  declined,    were  burned  to  serve  as  nocturnal  (in 
usum  nocturni    luminis   urerentur).     Nero  had   offered  his  own  gar- 
dens (on  the  Vatican)  for  this   spectacle,  and  also  exhibited  a  chariot 
race  on  the  occasion,  now  mingling  in  the  crowd  in  the  dress  of  a  chari- 
oteer, now  himself  actually  holding  the  reins.     Whence  a  feeling  of 
compassion  arose  toward  the    sufferers,  although  justly  held    to  be 
odious,  because  they  seemed  to  be  cut  off  not  for  the  public  good,  but 
as  victims  to  the  ferocity  of  one  man."     The  description  by  the  great- 
est master  of  prose  in  that  age  is  graphic  and  speaks  for  itself.     The 
severity  of  the  measures  applied    to  defenseless  Christians  is  not  ex- 
aggerated; the  literature  of  the    time  is  not  wanting  in  confirmation  of 
the  devices  for  cruelty  made  by  the  nation  that  invented  the  cross. 
Seneca, 2  the  ill-fated  teacher  of  Nero,   describes  such  an  "apparatus 
terribilis,"  which  he  probably   saw  applied  to  some  unfortunate  cul- 
prit.    He  says,    "Cogito  hoc  loco  carcerem,  et  cruces,  et  uncum,  et 
adactum,  per  medium  hominem,   qui   per  os  emergat,  stipitem,  et  dis- 
tracta  in  diversum  actis  curribus  membra,  illamtunicam,  alimentis  ig- 
nium  et  ellitam  et  intextam."     Juvenal,"!  the  poet,  has  cast  the  same 
picture  into  the  metre, 

•  An.  15,  44.  3  Juvennl  ?nt.  I,  155. 

2  Seneca  Ep.  14. 

46 


Pone  Tigellinum,  taeda  lucebis  in  ilia, 
Qua  stantes  ardent,  qui  fixo  fumant 
Et  latum  media  sulcum  deducit  arena. 

The  pitch-covered  shirt  (tunica)  seems  to  have  been  more  dreaded 
than  the  cross,  or  the  pointed  pole.     He  refers  to  it  again.' 
"ausi  quod  liceat  tunica  punire  molesta." 

Martial, 2  the  clever  writer  of  epigrams,  has  a  similar  passage, 

"In  matutina  nuper  spectatus  arena 
Mucins  imposuit  qui  sua  membra  focis 
Si  patiens  fortisque  tibi  durusque  videtur 
Ab  deritanae  pectora  plebis  habes 
Nam,  cum  dicatur,  tunica  praesente  molesta 
lire  manum.  plus  est  dicere:  non  facio." 

Remembering  that  we  have  here  three  authors,  of  whom  Seneca 
represents  the  reign  of  Nero  (54-68) ,  Martial  the  reign  of  Domitian 
(81-96) ,  and  Juvenal  that  of  Trajan  (98-117) ,  we  may  assume  the  use 
of  the  "tunica  molesta"  to  have  been  long  continued. 

The  Neronian  persecution  was  probably  confined  to  the  city.  An 
inscription,  indicating  a  wider  scope  of  the  persecution,  was  found  in 
Lusitania  (Portugal),  and  was  first  published  by  Cyriacus  of  Ancora. 

NERONl  CL.  CAIS  AUG.  PONT. 
MAX  OB  PROVINCIAM  LATRONIB 
ET  HIS  QUI  NOVAM  GENERI  HUM. 
SVPER  STITION.     INCULCAB  PURGA 
TAM.3 


1  Juv.  Sat.  8,  235. 

2  Martial  X  Epig.  25. 

3  Orelli  Inscr.  v.  I,  No.  730. 

47 


Scholars'  are  unanimous  in  declaring  the  inscription  spurious. 
The  classic  writers,  at  least,  do  not  seem  to  know  anything  about  pro- 
vincial persecutions  at  this  time. 

Another  description  of  the  burning  of  Rome  is  given  us  by  Dio 
Cassius.  but  he  says  nothing  about  the  persecution  proper.  Suetoni- 
us does  not  enter  upon  the  reasons  for  Nero's  cruelty,  but  simply  puts 
the  punishment  of  Christians  among  the  police  measures  adopted  by 
him.  "Afflicti  suppliciis  Christiani,  genus  hominum  superstitionis 
novcC  ac  maleficje."^  it  must  be  noted  that  this  persecution  was  not, 
as  later  persecutions  were,  carried  on  propter  religionem  novam  de- 
lendam.  The  words  of  Suetonius  must  be  understood  as  expressing  a 
much  later  view. 

3.  No  direct  persecution  seems  to  have  occurred  under  the  imme- 
diate successors  of  Nero.  After  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  70  A.  D.,  a 
tax.  known  as  Judaicus  fiscus,  was  by  Vespasian  (70-79)  and  Titus 
(78-31)  imposed  on  all  Jews,  incidentally  this  measure  affected 
Christians  of  Jewish  descent.  The  persecuting  temper  again  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  person  of  the  cruel  Domitian.i  (81-96).  That  the 
Judaicus  fiscus  was  exacted  rigorously  now,  we  learn  from  Suetonius. 4 
"Praeter  caeteros  Judaicus  fiscus  acerbissime  actus  est."  While 
Christian  tradition  speaks  of  large  numberss  that   suffered  martyrdom 


1  Gieseler  I.  p.  85,  note  5.  Mosheim  H.  E.  p.  37  calls  Cyriacus  of 
Ancora  a  "homo,  quod  omnes  sciunt,  fallax,  et  si  quis  alius,  make 
quisfidei."  Orosius  Hist.  VII,  7,  asserts  that  it  extended  into  the  pro- 
vinces: "Ac  per  omnes  provincias  pari  persecutione  excruciari  im- 
peravit.  Cf.  Sulpicius  Severus  Chron.  II,  28-29.  Cf.  also  F^ev.  2, 
13  (Antipas). 

2  Suet.   Nero  16. 

3  Augustin  in  De  Civ.  Dei  counts  ten  great  persecutions:  Nero,  Dom- 
itian,  Trajan,  Antoninus  (Marc  Aurelius),  Septimius  Severus,  De- 
cius.  Valerian,  Aurelain  and  Diocletian.   Lactantius  counts  six. 

4  Suet.   Vita  Dom.  12. 

.s  Eusebius  Chron.  2  and  Olymp.  218  says  iroXXoi  S^  Xpianai'ui'  laap- 
Tvpi](Tav  Kara  Aouenocdf . 

48 


under  Domitian,  the  pagan  sources  record  but  one  or  two  names  of 
such  as  were  persecuted  possibly  on  account  of  their  Christian  views. 
These  were  the  Emperor's  cousin  Flavius  Clemens  and  his  wife  Domi- 
tilla.  Dio  Cassias'  says,  "TAv  Odj3iov  KX^^eira  virareijovra,  Kalirep 
dvexpibv  6vra,  Kal  yvvaiKa  Kal  a'urijv  avyyeinj  iavroO  O^o-^^o-v  AofjurlWav 
^xovra  KaTi<r<t>a.^ev  6  AontrLavds."  Because  Dio  Cassius  states  an  un- 
willingness to  honor  the  gods  as  the  cause  of  their  conviction, 
" iTTTiv^x&V  Si  dfi(po7v  eyK\r}/ji.a  d^e^rrjToi  [ddeos-o  /xt)  (Xep6fji.evos  rows  ^eoiJs) 
they  are  generally  believed  to  have  been  Christians.  Of  this  we  cannot 
be  certain.  Dio  Cassius  asserts  "atheism"  to  have  caused  the  convic- 
tion of  many  of  the  Jews,  "60'  ^s  (i.  e.  tyKX-qfia  ddeSTrtroi)  Kal  AXXot  ^$ 
TO  Twv  lovSaiuv  TJd'f)  i^oKiWoPTfS  TToXXoi  KaTeSiKdsdTjffav  /cot  oi  jxkv dttidavov ^ 
ol  di  tQv  \oOp  ova-iCov  iffTtpr)dii)<Tav ."  Perhaps  they  were  Jews.  Fa- 
bius  Clemens  was  killed;  Domitilla  suffered  banishment:  ^  5^  AonirlX- 
Xo  inrepwpla6ri  fibvov  th  JlavSaripetav  (an  island  off  the  coast  of  Cam- 
pania). 

The  succeeding  reign  of  Nerva  (96-98)  proved  humane.  No  per- 
secutions are  recorded.  On  the  contrary,  Nerva  revoked  the  strin- 
gent acts  of  his  predecessors,  calling  back  the  exiled,  without  regard 
to  religious  views  and  restoring  rights  and  property.  The  same  Dio 
Cassius-  says,  '0  Nepiuaj  toi>s  re  Kpivofnivovi  iir  dae^etg.  d(p7jKe ,  Kal  roiit 
4>e^ovTas  Karriyayc  rots  5^  Si]  dWois  oi)t'  dffe^elas,  ovt  'lovSaiKov  piov 
KaraiTidodal  tii/oj  o-uvexcipTjce.     There  is  preserved  a  coin  of  the  Roman 


1  Dio  Cassius  Ep.  Xiph.  67,  14. 

2  Eub.  Chron.  2  ad  Olymp.  218  says  of  Domitilla  ToXXoi  SiXpiffnavdv 
ip.apTvpri<rav  Kara.  Aoneriavbv.  Hegesippus  in  Euseb.  Ill,  20  relates 
how  Domitian  had  summoned  the  grandchildren  of  Judas,  the  brother 
of  Jesus,  but  dismissed  them  on  account  of  their  harmless  peasant 
condition.  Note.  Christians  were  often  called  a^^us.  Theimposter 
Alexander  of  Abonoteichos  in  Lucian  Alex.  25  and  38  protests  against 
the  presence  of  Christians  and  atheists.  Comp.  the  cry  of  Smyrna 
in  Eusebius  4:  13 — alperoiis  dd^ovs. 

3  Dio  Cass.  ep.  Xiph.  68,  1. 

49 


he  inscription:   "Fisci  Judaici   calumnia  sublata."'    Cf.  also  end  of 

Juvenal's  4  Sat. 

4.     Advancing  to  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Trajan   (96-117),  we 

reach  an  epochal  period  in  the  history  of  the  ancient  persecutions  of 
Christians.  A  storm  of  popular  rage  now  swept  over  the  church,  and 
in  its  track  followed  the  first  legal  enactment  dealing  specifically  with 
the  relation  of  the  state  to  Christianity.  The  course  of  events  is  illum- 
ined by  documents  of  first  hand  testimony,  important  in  both  their  lit- 
erary and  historical  aspects.  The  province  of  Bithynia  on  the  Pontus 
was  a  stronghold  of  Christianity  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  cen- 
tury. From  111-11.^  the  younger  Pliny  received  from  Trajan  the  gov- 
ernorship over  Bithynia  and  Pontus.  Here  many  Christians  were 
brought  to  him  for  trial.  Trajan  had,  in  99,-  given  a  law  forbidding 
Senate,  celebrating  the  revoking  of  the  fiscus  Judaicus  and  bearing 
"hetaerias,"5  clubs  of  fraternities,  usually  formed  for  political  ends. 
Pliny  had  brought  this  edict  to  the  knowledge  of  the  provinces  (post 
edictum  meum,  quo  secundum  mandata  tua  hetaerias  esse  vetuer- 
am)  ;  and  the  secret  meetings  of  the  Christians  had  brought  them 
under  suspicion  of  fostering  such  hetaerias.  But  PHny  was  undecided 
as  to  the  proper  course  of  action;  he  directed  a  letter  of  official  in- 
quiry concerning  the  will  of  the  emperor  to  Rome.  The  existing  law 
against  hetaeriae  he  had  already  applied ;  it  did  not  seem  to  cover  the 
situation  arising  out  of  Christianity.  What  was  to  be  done?  Trials 
of  Christians  occurred  frequently,  though  the  experience  was  new  to 
him  (cognitionibus  de  Christianis  interfui  nunquam).  All  especial 
edicts  of  Nero  or  Domitian  (if  any  had  existed)  were  abrogated  since 
the  reign  of  Nerva.     "Nescio,  quid  et  quatenus  aut  puniri  soleat  aut 


I  Ekhel  Doctrina  Nummor  Veter.  p.  405.     Quoted  by  Dr.  E.  G.  Sihler 

in  my  notes. 
3  Pliny  Ep.-ex.  34. 


50 


quaeri."  Should  he  observe  a  discrimen  aetatiim  between  the  teneri 
and  the  robustiores?  Should  any  one  be  punished  for  having  been  a 
Christian  (qui  omnino  Christianus  fuit)?  Should  the  very  name 
(nomen  ipsum)  be  a  cause  of  punishment  because  of  its  being  associa- 
ted by  the  people  with  crimes?  Some  Christians  were  reported  (def- 
erebantur)  to  him.  and  he  took  this  course  (modum)  of  action:  He 
asked  them  whether  they  were  Ciiristians  (an  essentChristiani)  ?  if 
they  confessed  to  be  such,  he  repeated  the  question  two  orthree times, 
threatening  punishment.  Those  persisting  (perseverantes)  he  execut- 
ed (duci  iussit).  That  a  certain  inflexible  obstinacy  (pertinaciam  certe 
et  inflexibilem  obstinationem  debere  puniri)  should  be  punished,  he 
was  convinced.  Such  as  happened  to  be  Roman  citizens  he  sent  to 
Rome.  An  anonymous  indictment  (libellus  sine  auctore.  muitorum 
nomina  continens)  was  submitted  to  him.  These  people  denied  being 
or  having  been  (esse  se  Christianos  aut  fuisse)  Christians.  Of  the 
indicted,  he  dismissed  those,  who,  denying  that  they  were  Christians, 
repeated  the  customary  formula  and  sacrificed  to  the  gods  and  the  em- 
peror's image  "ture  ac  vino,"  and  besides  cursed  Christ,  which  no 
real  Christian  could  be  compelled  to  do  (maledicerent  Christo,  quorum 
nihil  posse  cogi  dicuntur,  qui  sunt  re  vera  Christian!).  Their  meet- 
ings, usually  held  ante  lucem,  he  had  succeeded  in  stopping  on  the 
existing  laws  against  hetaeriae.  in  order  to  get  at  the  truth,  he 
deemed  it  necessary  to  apply  torture  to  some  of  them ;  and  he  put  on 
the  rack  (per  tormenta  quaerere)  even  the  tender  women  (ex  duabus 
ancillis,  quae  ministrae  dicebantur) ,  deaconesses,  probably  on  ac- 
count of  their  especial  service  in  in  the  church,  the  better  to  get  at  the 
real  character  of  their  religion.  What  rendered  the  situation  worthy 
of  official  consideration  was  not  the  especially  dangerous  character  of 
the  religion,  for  Pliny  says,  "Nihil  aliud  inveni,  quam  superstitionem 
pravem  et  immodicam,"  but  the  extent  of  the  movement  and  the  fact 

51 


that  people  of  aii  ages,  fanks  and  sexes  were  being  involved  (Multr 
enim  omnis  aetatis,  omnis  ordinis.  utriusque  sexus  etiam,  vocantur  in 
periculura,  et  vocabuntur.)  As  by  contagion,  the  "superstitio"  had 
spread  through  the  cities  (civitates),  the  villages  (vicos)  and  in  the 
rural  districts  (agros).  He  thought  it  was  not  yet  too  late  to  revive 
the  "religio"  and  to  arrest  the  further  inroads  of  the  "superstitio," 
judging  by  his  success  in  reestablishing  sacrifice  in  the  temples  that 
had  already  been  neglected  (certe  satis  constat,  prope  iam  desolata 
templa  coepisse  celebrari,  et  sacra  solemnia  diu  intermissa  repeti  pas- 
tumque  venire  victimarum,  cuius  adhuc  rarissimus  emptor  invenieba- 
tur).  The  spirit  of  Pliny's  letter  pleads  for  clemency  from  the  emper- 
or, if  an  easy  expedient  for  helping  the  guilty  to  renounce  the  "su- 
perstitio" could  be  suggested,  the  mass  might  easily  be  corrected. 
Thus  he  concludes  the  letter:  "Ex  quo  facile  est  opinari,  quae  turba 
hominum  emendari  possit,  si  sit  poenitentiae  locus." 

The  information  we  receive  from  Pliny  is  supplemented  by  the  re- 
script from  Trajan.  This  letter  is  brief,  to  the  point,  and  in  the  spirit 
of  the  best  lawgivers  of  the  time.  No  Christians  should  be  sought 
for  arrest  (conquirendi  non  sunt),  a  statement  seemingly  assuring  to 
the  Christians  the  right  of  unmolested  continuance  in  whatever  private 
persuasion  they  might  entertain.  It  is,  however,  counteracted  by  the 
further  stipulation  that  if  any  were  accused  and  convicted  they  were  to 
be  punished  (si  deferantur  et  arguantur  puniendi  sunt).  This  clause 
made  Christianity  an  offense  contrary  to  Roman'  law  and  punishable. 
It  became  officially  stamped  as  a  religio  illicita,  receiving  not  even  the 
privileges  granted  to  Judaism.  The  method  of  legal  procedure  also 
was  prescribed.     Relief  from  punishment  should  be  granted  to  such  as 

«  Baur,  G.  d.  d.  d.  e.  J.  I.  p  439  "So  enthielt  die  Entscheidung  Trk- 
jans,  so  wenig  es  ihr  auf  etwas  direct  Feindseliges  gegen  das 
Christentum  abgesehen  zu  sein  schien,  dasHaerteste,  was  ueber  das 
Christentum  verfuegt  werden  konnte." 

52 


would  avow  they  were  not  Christians  and  would  confirm  the  affirma- 
tion by  an  overt  act;  namely,  by  invoking  the  Roman  gods  (ita  taraen, 
ut  qui  negaverit  se  Christianum  esse,  idque  re  ipsamanifestum  fecerit, 
i.  e.,  supplicando  diis  nostris,  quamvis  suspectus  in  praeteritum, 
veniam  ex  poenitentia  impetret).  The  test  was  severe.  It  must  have 
sifted  the  chaff  from  the  wheat,  wherever  it  was  applied.  With  re- 
gard to  the  anonymous  accusations  spoken  of  by  Pliny,  the  emperor 
determined  that  none  should  be  considered  (sineauctore  vero  propositi 
libelli  in  nullo  crimine  locum  habere  debent)  ;  he  meantto  advance  jus- 
tice and  condemned  them  to  be  unworthy  of  the  age.' 

5.  Trajan's  decree  hardly  ameliorated  the  condition  of  the  Chris- 
tians, though  the  emperor  certainly  meant  to  render  justice  to  them 
and  to  protect  where  he  thought  injustice  was  done  them.  The  de- 
cree seems  sometimes  to  have  been  abused,  naturally  in  disfavor  of 
the  Christians.  Mobs  sometimes  clamored  for  the  execution  of  Chris- 
tians at  the  public  festivals,  for  did  not  the  law  forbid  that  any  one 
should  be  a  Christian?  Serenius  Granianus,  proconsul  of  Asia  Minor, 
complained  to  the  emperor  Hadrian  (117-138)  of  being  besieged  with 
"precibus  et  acclamationibus"  by  the  people.  The  reply^  of  Hadrian 
reached  the  successor,  Minucius  Fundanus  by  name.  Hadrian,  in 
agreement  with  Trajan,  condemned  every  illegal  method  of  accusing 
the  Christians'  (precibus  autem  in  hoc  solis  et  acclamationibus  uti  eis 
non  permitto)  ;  if  they  (the  accusers)  could  carry  the  matter  into  court 
and  prosecute  in  a  worthy  way,  he  would  not  object  (ut  pro  tribunal! 
eos  in  aliquo  arguant,  hoc  eis  exsequi  non  prohibeo).  If  any  one  was 
really  convicted  of  an  offense  against  the  law,  punishment  should  be 

I  Pliny  ad  Trajanum  eps.  96  and  97.  We  have  no  account  of  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  Ignatius  under  Trajan  by  pagan  authors.  Cf.  Euseb. 
History  3,  36. 

^  Originally  lyeserved  in  Latin  by  Justin  Martyr  Ap  1,  69  and  trans- 
lated into  Greek  by  Eusebius  Hist  4,  9. 

53 


meted  out  to  him  in  proportion  to  his  offense  (Si  quis  igitur  accusat, 
et  prohat  adversiim  leges  quidquam  agere  memoratos  homines,  pro 
merito  peccatorum  etiam  supplicia  statues).  To  stop  the  evident  pas- 
sion for  traducing  Christians,  he  wished  those  that  were  exposed  as 
being  mere  vicious  calumniators  to  be  especially  punished  (illud  me- 
hercle  magnopere  curabis,  ut,  si  quis  calumniae  gratia  quenquam 
horum  postulaverit  reum,  in  hunc  pro  sui  nequitiasuppliciis  severiori- 
bus  vindices).  That  Hadrian  especially  favored  the  Christians,  need 
not  be  a  necessary  inference  for  his  letter.  There  is  a  tradition  that 
Hadrian  had  temples  dedicated  to  Jesus  and  intended  to  receive  him 
as  a  god.  Lampridius'  says,  "Christo  templum  facere  voluit  (i.  e. 
Alex.  Sev.)  eumque  inter  deos  recipere.  Quaod  et  Adrianus  cogitasse 
fertur,  qui  templa  in  omnibus  civitatibus  sine  simulacris  iusserit  fieri 

etc.     Spartianus,  on  the  other  side,  makes  us  doubt  whether 

Hadrian  was  at  heart  favorably  disposed  toward  Christians.  He  de- 
scribes him  as  a  loyal  Roman,  desirous  of  preserving  Roman  institu- 
tions and  unfavorable  to  foreign  things.  He  says,  "Sacra  Romana 
diligentissime  curavit,  peregrina  (Christianity  was  among  these)  con- 
tempsit."2  Let  us  admit  that  Hadrian  allowed  the  Christians  to  enjoy 
whatsoever  rights  the  existing  laws  granted  them. 

6.  Since  the  history  of  the  persecutions  is  the  special  content  of 
Christian  literature,  growing  fuller  as  Christianity  became  more  and 
more  established,  light  from  the  purely  pagan  sources  is  very  dim. 
The  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius  (138-161),  for  instance,  was  not  entirely 
free  from  commotions  directed  against  the  Christians,  but  we  are,  for 
want  of  reliable  information,  obliged  to  pass  over  it  in  silence.  Mark 
Aurelius  (161-180)  is  known  for  his  philosophical  self-restraint  and 
love  of  justice,  but  his  sympathies  were  not  pro-Christian.     We  pos- 

1  Lamp.  Vita  Alex  Severi  43. 

2  Spartianus,  V.  Hadriani  22.     Cf.  also  Vospiscus  V.Saturnini  8. 

54 


sess  a  law  given  by  him,  consigning  to  exile  all  religious  innovators 
and  disturbers.  Julius  Paulus,  one  of  the  later  jurists,  gives  it  thus: 
"Qui  novas,  et  usu  vel  ratione  incognitas  religiones  inducunt,  ex  qui- 
bus  animi  hominum  moveantur,  honestiores  deportantur,  humiliores 
capite  puniuntur."!  Modestinus,  another  juristof  the  same  time,  says, 
"Si  quis  aliquid  fecerit,  quo  leves  hominum  animi  superstitione  numi- 
nis  terrentur,  Divus  Marcus  huius  modi  homines  in  insulam  relegari 
rescripsit."2  There  is  no  direct  evidence  that  this  law  was  ever  ap- 
plied to  Christians.  But  the  times  were  such  that  it  may  be  reasona- 
bly assumed.  Celsus  wrote  his  attack  on  the  Christian  religion  at 
this  time.  He  characterizes  the  Christians  significantly  as  (peijyovTfs 
Kal  KpviTT6iJ.€voi  7)  a\t(r/c6/*eK0i  /cai  airoWv/i^voi.?,  Religious  impostors 
(goetae),  invested  the  empire,  and  the  ordinary  pagan  mind  saw  no 
distinction  between  these  and  Christians. 4 

7.  The  attitude  of  the  rulers  and  the  people  grew  more  tolerant 
gradually,  the  mild  in  temper  alternating  with  the  hostile.  Some  of 
the  most  severe  persecutions,  sytematically  carried  out,  came  as  late 
as  Decius  and  Diocletian.  Christian  literature  gives  full  accounts  of 
them;  pagan  literature  records  comparatively  little.  Commodus  (180- 
192)  may  have  been  favorably  influenced  by  Marcia,  his  concubine, 
who  was  herself  well  disposed  towards  the  Christians. 5  We  have  no 
pagan  records  of  any  persecutions  under  SeptimiusSeverus  (195-211), 
though  the  later  years  of  his  reign  were  not  without  them.  In  Alexan- 
der Severus  (222-235)  and  his  predecessor  Elagabalus  (218-222)  we 
meet  the  remarkable  syncretism,   by  which  they  blended  Christianity 


J  Julii  Pauli  Sententarium  Recept.  V.    Tit.  21,  2  quoted  in  Gieseier  V, 
1. 

2  Quoted  by  the  same. 

3  Origen  C.  C.  8. 

4  Polycarp  (167)  and  Justin  (166)  suffered  martyrdom  in  this  time. 

5  Dio  Cassias  72,  4. 

55 


and  paganism.  Of  Elagabalus  Lampridius  says,  "Heliogabaluin  in 
Palatine  monte  inxta  cedes  imperatorias  consecravit,  eique  templum 
fecit,  studens  et  Matris  typum  et  vests  ignem  et  Palladium  et  ancillia 
et  omnia  Romanis  veneranda  in  illud  transferre  templum,  et  id  agens, 
ne  quis  Romie  deus  nisi  Heliogabalus  coleretur.  Dicebat  praeterea, 
Judfeorum  et  Samaritanorum  religiones,  et  christianam  devotionem 
illuc  transferendam,  ut  omnium  culturarum  secretum  Heliogabali  sacer- 
dotium  teneret."'  So  pan-religious  a  spirit  the  world  had  probably 
seldom  seen  before  him;  but  his  indulging  the  Christian  religion 
was  due  to  selfish  interests,  for  he  personally  favored  Syrian  sun 
worship.  The  syncretism  of  Alexander  Severus  and  his  mother,  Julia 
Mammaea,  was  less  faddish,  therefore  more  rational.  Contrary  to 
Septimius  Severus,  who  in  201  forbade  all  defection  from  paganism  to 
both  Judaism  and  Christianity,  Alexander  Severus  bestowed  all  priv- 
ileges on  the  Jews  and  was  indulgent  to  Christians.  Lampridius  says, 
"Judaeis  privilegia  reservavit,  Christianos  passus  est."^  In  his  lara- 
rium  stood  among  others  the  statues  of  Jesus,  Abraham,  Orpheus  and 
Apollonius  of  Tyana:  "Et  Apollonium,  et,  quantum  scriptor  suorum 
temporum  dicit,  Christum,  Abraham  et  Orpheum,  et  huiusmodi  caeteros 
habebat,  ac  maiorum  effigies,"  etc.  He  had  the  intention  of  building  a 
temple  to  Jesus  Christ:  "Christo  templum  facere  voluit,  eumque  inter 
deos  recipere."  Besides  he  aided  the  Christians  in  acquiring  proper- 
ty for  religious  uses,  believing  no  better  use  could  be  made  of  public 
property:  "Cum  Christiani  quendam  locum  qui  publicus  fuerat,  occu- 
passent,  contra  popinarii  decerent,  sibi  eum  deberi,  rescripsit,  melius 
esse,  ut  quomodocunque  illic  Deus  colatur,  quampopinariis  dedatur." 
The  eventful  reign  of  Decius  (249-251),  so  disastrous  for  the  Chris- 
tians, extended  over  two  years  only.     The  governors  of  the  various 


1  Lamp.  Heliog.  3,  6,  7. 

2  Lamp,  in  Sev.  Alex.  22;  29;  43;  49. 

56 


provinces  had  been  commanded  to  compel  all  Christians  to  accept  the 
national  cult.  The  apostates  are  usually  divided  into  three  classes— 
sacrificati,  thurificati,  libellatici.  One  of  the  documents  by  which  the 
magistrates  attested  the  sacrifice  of  a  former  Christian,  Aurelius  Di- 
ogenes, was  found  in  Egypt.  Aurelius  Diogenes  wrote,  "I  have  sac- 
rificed to  the  gods  regularly,  and  have  done  so  now  in  accordance 
with  the  (imperial  orders  in  your  presence,  have  [eaten  and  drunk] 
at  sacrifice  and  I  pray  you  to  certify  to  same.  Farewell,  I,  Aurelius 
Diogenes,  have  submitted  this."  Then  follows  the  official  signature: 
"That  Aurelius  has  sacrificed,  we  aflfirm  herewith.  In  the  (first)  year 
of  the  emperor  Ceesar  Gaius  Messius  Quintus  Traianus  Decius,  the 
Pious,  the  Blessed,  the  Exalted;  June  26.""  Merely  a  scrap  of  Egyp- 
tian papyrus,  written,  submitted  and  signed  in  the  village  of  "Alex- 
ander's Isle,"  but  a  speaking  testimony  to  the  severity  of  the  Decian 
persecution  and  of  the  persistence  with  which  it  was  pushed  into  the 
villages  of  the  distant  provinces  of  the  empire. 

7.  MARTYRDOM.  The  number  of  martyrs  must  have  been  very 
large.  Tacitus  already  speaks  of  a  "multitude  ingens'  '^  that  perished 
in  the  Neronian  persecution.  Had  the  number  of  those  imperilled  in 
Bithynia  not  been  so  large,  Pliny  would  not  have  deemed  the  matter 
worthy  of  an  official  consultation  with  Trajan  (maxime  propter  peric- 
litantium  numerum).3  Moreover,  those  indicated  for  trial  came  from 
every  station  and  rank  of  society  (omnis  tetatis,  omnis  ordinis,  utri- 
usque  sexus).  Few  names  of  martyrs  are  given.  Die  Cassius4 
mentions  Fabius  Clemens,  who  was  executed,  and  his  wife,  Flavia 


'  Geffken,  Christentum,  P.  64. 

2  An.  15,  44. 

3  Pliny  ad  Traj.  96. 

4  Dio  Cassius  67,  14. 


57 


Domitilla,  banished  to  Pantatereia.'  Some  have  thought  Lucian's  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  Peregrinus  to  be  a  parody  on  the  martyrdom  of 
Polycarpus;  the  supposition,  however,  has  been  abandoned.  Martyr- 
dom in  our  sources  can  be  seen  in  its  broad  outlines  only. 

The  fortitude  of  the  Christian  martyrs  usually  impressed  the 
pagans  as  a   form  of    obstinacy.     Cf.   Pliny  ad  Traj:   "pertinaciam 

et  inflexibilem  obstinationem."     Sometimes  the  martyr  spirit 

must  have  risen  to  a  pitch  of  wild  enthusiasm.  The  Stoical  Epictetus 
says  that  the  Galilajans  acted  inrb  fiavias^  (also  Pliny-amentiae.) 

With  scorn  Mark  Aurelius  traces  their  enthusiasm  to  sheer  ob- 
stinacy— 3  /XT)  Kara  \pL\r]v  Trapard^iv,  dis  ol  Xpicrriavol,  etc.  If  the  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  Peregrinus  by  Lucian  is  purely  fictitious,  as 
Baur  and  some  others  believed,  the  description  may  be  considered  as 
voicing  the  current  pagan  view  of  Christian  martyrdom.  Lucian 
says, 4  "I  found  a  funeral  pyre  erected  in  a  cavity  six  feet  deep. 
There  were  firebrands  in  abundance,  and  fagots  had  been  stuffed  in 
that  the  pyre  might  be  readily  fired.  When  the  moon  rose,  Peregri- 
nus stepped  forward,  and  with  him  the  chief  men  of  the  Cynic  sect, 
and  in  particular  the  distinguished  citizen  of  Patrae  (Theagenes,  a 
Cynic  admirer  and  champion  of  P.)  with  torch  in  hand,  no  mean  as- 
sistant in  the  drama.  Proteus  himself  had  a  torch  in  his  hand.  Sev- 
eral men  came  forward  and  lighted  the  pile  in  various  places.  The  in- 
flammable material  was  soon  ablaze.  Peregrinus  laid  aside  his  wal- 
let, his  cloak  and  his  Hercules  club,   and  stood  there  clad  only   in  a 

'  Eusebius  Chron.  lib.  11  ad  Olymp.  218  quotes  a  certain  Brettios 
(others  Bruttios)  as  his  authority  for  the  martyrdom  of  these  under 
Domitian.  Cf.  also  Jerome  Epist.  86  ad  Eustochium  Virg.  epitaph- 
ium  Paulae  matris  says  Paula  saw  on  the  island  of  Pontia  the  little 
cells  'Mn  quibus  ilia  (Flavia)  longum  martyrium  duxerat." 

4,  7,  6. 

3  Medit.  XI,  3. 

4  de  morte  Peregr. 

58 


•   •• 


•  •     •  .*.   ••• 


•  •'.•• 


•     ••••••••  *..*•* 


soiled  undergarment.  Then  he  asked  for  frankincense  that  he  might 
throw  it  upon  the  fire,  it  was  handed  to  him  and  he  threw  it  upon 
the  flames;  then,  turning  to  the  south,  he  said,  "O  spirits  of  my 
mother  and  my  father,  receive  me  kindly."  After  this  speech  he 
leaped  into  the  fire  and  disappeared  from  sight."  Some  see^  in  this 
account  of  Peregrinus  an  attack  on  Cynic  philosophy  rather  than  on 
Christianity.  But  we  dare  not  overlook  the  fact  that  Peregrinus, 
though  a  deceiver  of  the  Christians,  is  clearly  described  as  having  had 
certain  traits  in  common  with  them.  Lucian  proceeds,  "He  was  ar- 
rested upon  this  charge  (of  being  a  Christian)  and  was  cast  into 
prison,  a  proceeding  which  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  eclat  of  his 
subsequent  life  and  assisted  him  in  the  chicanery  and  the  thirst  for 

notoriety  by  which   he  was  actuated Peregrinus  was 

released  by  the  governor  of  Syria,  a  man  who  was  fond  of  philosophy. 
The  governor  recognized  the  folly  of  Peregrinus  and  knew  that  he 
would  gladly  die  if  thereby  he  could  gain  notoriety;  the  governor  ac- 
cordingly released  him,"  etc.  His  death  should,  it  seems,  be  viewed 
in  the  light  of  this  characterization.  May  it  not  be  a  parody  on  Chris- 
tian martyrdom? 

Sometimes,  however,  Christian  fortitude  impressed  the  pagan 
neighbors  favorably  and  elicited  commiseration,  perhaps  admiration, 
from  noble  spirits.  Tacitus^  admits  the  fact  that  a  "miseratio"  arose 
for  the  victims  of  Nero  that  were  slaughtered  not  for  the  good  of  the 
state,  but,  as  the  people  felt,  to  satisfy  the  ferocity  of  one  man.  The 
gentle  Pliny,  stern,  even  cruel  under  constraint  of  opposition  and  duty, 
as  he  saw  it,  cannot  disguise  a  feeling  of  sympathy.  Among  Chris- 
tians, the  martyrs  naturally  were  very  highly  honored.     Libanius,3 


•  Gildersleeve  Essays  and  Studies  p.  350. 
2  An.  15,  44. 


59 


in  his  eulogy  on  Julian,  says  that  those  who  preferred  death  to  apos- 
tacy  by  some  sacrifice  were  honored  like  gods  by  their  coreligionists. 
Lucian  describes  the  attachment  with  which  Christians  clung  to  their 
martyrs  and  assisted  them.  When  Peregrinus  was  imprisoned,  "the 
Christians,"  says  Lucian,  "took  it  severely  to  heart,  did  everything 

in  their  power  to  get  him  out    of  prison they  showed  him 

every  attention.  At  daylight  you  could  have  seen  them  about  the 
prison,  old  men,  widows  and  orphans.  Their  chief  bribed  the  jailer 
and  slept  with  the  prisoner  in  the  jail.     They  carried  him  viands  in 

profusion  {Seivm  iroiKiXa) some  even  came  from  the  cities 

of  Asia to  aid  him They  show  an  astonish- 
ing swiftness  of  action  when  such  an  action  becomes  known.  In 
short,  they  spare  nothing." 


60 


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